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 Over the years I have heard various comments about Randy Clark – most of which tended to focus on a small period in Randy’s life.
In 1994 Randy was an average Vineyard pastor in St. Louis when the Lord used him to spark a revival in Toronto that spread throughout the world. Yes, Randy was the guys who preached the first sermon on January 20, 1994 of what would later become known as the “Toronto Blessing.”
Having mixed feelings about the revival and its effect within the Vineyard and throughout Pentecostal/Charismatic circles in general, I was cautiously excited when I saw one of his books inside a box of giveaway item destined for our church’s food pantry/clothing closet. My feelings were even more mixed when I noticed that the book was focused primarily on impartations – i.e. the laying on hands by one person with the purpose of transferring a spiritual anointing to another person.
It should be noted my mixed feeling with such a topic comes having grown up within Pentecostal/Charismatic circles and having heard many a sermon preached about impartations and “mantles” (a reference to Elijah and Elisha in 2 Kings 2). Accordingly, I know that there is a biblical and historical precedent for such an impartation, it is just that over the years I have seen people chase after such impartations – going from one revival to another, one pastor superstar to another, chasing a spiritual ‘superpower’ that would allow them to bypass the mundane life on this planet and become a spiritual ‘giant’…..
Yeah, you know the abuse…
So there I was – face to face with a book by a controversial pastor on a controversial topic. And being me, I choose it as a traveling companion on the long ocean flight to the Philippines this past November. 
By now you are wondering what book I am talking about…well the book in question is “There Is More: Reclaiming The Power Of Impartation” published in 2006.
The book itself is split into three main sections looking first at the biblical and historical precedent for impartations before moving into an experiential look at the fruit or outcome of the “Toronto Blessing” and/or other revivals in which Randy prayed over someone to receive an anointing. The third part of the book is about the purpose or goal of such an impartation, which is to spread the word of God throughout the world for the glory of God.
Continue reading Impartations and Randy Clark
At 993 pages the second book of the Kingkiller Chronicle is an epic in and of itself, let alone when combined with 672 page first book, “The Name of the Wind.”
Even more to the point, the audio book version of “The Wise Man’s Fear” took over 43 hours – which translates into multiple [...]
“There is a counterintuitive aspect of engaging with the spiritual practices of church. Though spiritual formation is chiefly an inward reality, we often work on our heart, mind and soul through bodily or external practices. This is true of all the spiritual practices of church. But we need to keep in mind that it [...]
 A friend of my recently shared this short essay by CS Lewis about Christmas in the book “God in the Dock.“ After reading it, I just had to pass it along as it hits the nail on the head:
“Three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here. The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn’t go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business to have a ‘view’ on this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyone’s business.
“I mean of course the commercial racket. The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shopkeepers. Neither of these circumstances is in itself a reason for condemning it. I condemn it on the following grounds.
1) “It gives on the whole much more pain than pleasure. You have only to stay over Christmas with a family who seriously try to ‘keep’ it (in its third, or commercial, aspect) in order to see that the thing is a nightmare. Long before December 25th everyone is worn out — physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making; much less (if they should want to) to take part in a religious act. They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house.
Continue reading “What Christmas Means to Me” by CS Lewis
I was first introduced to Don Williams through a Vineyard Leadership Institute (VLI) course in 2005/2006. As I listened to him teach that day, I knew that he was one of those (unfortunately) rare individuals with a theologian scholar mind and a practitioner heart of compassion.
Since that day, I have had the pleasure [...]
 When you grow up with something, it is easy to forget about it and for it to become ‘normal’….
The leadership model taught by Tri Robinson at the Vineyard Boise is one such item that became ‘normal’ in my life. I had stopped thinking about it and just did it as it was engrained into my life and became second nature.
Yet as I traveled around the country and talked to different pastors and leaders, I slowly begun to realize that the way I did things, nay, the leadership structure I caught from Tri was different… and, even more amazing, it was a structure that allowed for the shifts in church life promoted by folks in the emerging and missional church.
Having noticed this difference, and having fairly recently become a senior pastor, I decided to go back and re-read Tri’s book leadership book, “Revolutionary Leadership.” In doing so I realized the main differences in Tri’s leadership structure:
“I realized that the church is truly a living body that wants to mature, but in order to do so it must be in a constant state of change. I learned that healthy church growth requires a structure that will continually facilitate transition. It requires a senior pastor who is willing to continually facilitate transition. It requires a senior pastor who is willing to give up the controlling entrepreneurial spirit and give away authority and responsibility to competent, willing people.”
As you have probably realized, the above principle of creating a church structure to “continually facilitate transition” is a tough one. Yet it is one that I believe can be implanted into a church through an ongoing Synergy Cycle comprising of three main principles:
Continue reading Revolutionary Leadership by Tri Robinson
 Published in 1998 by Vineyard Music, the small booklet “All About Worship: Insights and Perspectives on Worship” is a treasure trove of worship related information. The seventeen articles included in the booklet are written by fifteen passionate worships whose heart burns with the desire to share their love of God with others.
The articles themselves cover a wide range of information – from the theology of worship to practical steps in setting up a band to evangelizing the community through public worship.
- “The Life-Changing Power of Worship” by John Wimber
- “Worship: Out Highest Priority” by Rich Nathan
- “Humility, the Key to Serving in Worship” by Terry Butler
- “Putting God First” by Brian T. Anderson
- “Calling Women to Lead Worship” by Andy Park
- “Purity (A Woman’s Perspective)” by Cindy Rethmeier
- “Maintaining Purity While Working With The Opposite Sex (A Man’s Perspective)” by Andy Park
- “The Call to Worship the Father” by Brian Doerksen
- “What is Full-Time Worship Ministry?” By John Barnett
- “Performance: An Attitude of the Heart” by Danny Daniels
- “Worship Evangelism” by Mark McCoy
- “Worship Leaders from a Pastor’s Perspective” by Lloyd Rankin
- “Leaning to Lead Worship: A Beginners Guide” by Brent Helming
- “Leading Worship in a Small Group” by Brent Helming
- “Leading Worship in a Smaller Church” by Larry Myers
- “Ministry Time Worship: A Practical Point of View” by Scott Underwood
- “Serving Through Sound” by Marianne Kleine
As you can see from the above titles, having such a wide range of worship topics, it is hard to summarize this booklet in general… as such, I am going to leave you all with some selected quotes that I found particularly compelling:
Continue reading All About Worship
 Three months ago I was introduced to Orson Scott Card through his book “Ender’s Game.” Seeing how awesome his envisioning of modern technology (a lot of which have come true since the book was published) and study of human nature was, I eagerly jumped into the second book of the series, “Speaker for the Dead.”
This book was even better!!
True, it was not as action backed as “Ender’s Game” but nonetheless it was an amazing book that dove deep into the human behavior. How does one treat an alien race that is different than one’s own? How about a human who is reacting out of guilt and secrecy? Can you learn to understand someone, even when they are ‘evil’ and do bad things?
It was with great joy that I picked up the third book in the series, “Xenocide” (especially since book two ended before everything was resolved).
Sadly enough, I have to report that “Xenocide” failed to uphold the same standard as the first two… 
Well, kind of… the first three-fourth of the book was fairly good as Card tried hard to explore how one could live side-by-side with aliens, who by their very existence, places your life in danger. He also explores the nature of life and what it means to be alive.
Continue reading Jumping the Space Shark
“Sitting around the living room having coffee and cold drinks with Christian friends, the conversation turned to a favorite topic: church bashing. Almost all criticism of church – “All I do is look at the back of other people’s heads”; “The music is out of date”; “The preaching is boring”; The pastors are selfish and manipulative”; “The staff is clueless or hypocritical” – assume that church means what happens on Sunday morning. Think about it: when have you ever heard criticisms of how the dispersed church practices its faith – expect when there is a major moral scandal of a famous Christian? It seems to me that 98 percent of church criticism has to do with one hour of the weekend.
“What if we could shift from seeing church as doing our weekend duty to seeing the historic elements of church as spiritual practices – as a springboard for a way, an order, a practice or a structure for spiritual life?”
So begins the introduction for the newest book I’m reading, “Giving Church Another Chance: Finding New Meaning in Spiritual Practices” by Todd Hunter.
Wow, such a powerful statement – that that should remind us that the hour or two when folks get together on Sunday morning is NOT the end all. Todd describes it this way in chapter one,
“Most every human activity has meetings associated with it. Corporate marketing teams meets, sports team meet, surgical teams meet, teachers meet – but none of them confuse the meetings with the real task. Meetings exist to facilitate the actual work.
“…Like most human endeavors, the church has meetings associated with it. Unfortunately, while most people do not confuse meeting with their work (the game or show), churchgoers often do.”
We need to “rethink the purpose of the meetings” – we need to change the reason we meet together as a corporate body. Instead of coming together to GET something OUT of the meetings, I believe we should come together for two main purposes:
Continue reading Confusing the Meetings with the Real Task
 As the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicle, “The Name of the Wind” does a good job of setting the stage and developing the characters that will then (I’m assuming) play a bigger role in the two following books.
The interesting thing about this book – well, the Chronicle in general – is that it is split between two different time frames. In the ‘present’ time, the main character is an inn-keeper hiding on the edge of civilization. He is fairly happy in this new role…except that deep within himself there is a longing for the glory days of old. So he begins to tell the story of this life to a scribe who wanders into the inn on accident….
This is where the second time frame comes in – the time frame of the past. It is in this time frame that takes up the lion share of the book as it is full of daring adventures, romance and history (the history is important as it helps one to understand the new world created by Rothfuss for his characters).
Being a fantasy novel, there is magic and the like – only in this series, the magic is more along the lines of Clarke’s third law:
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Continue reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
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Who Writes This Mess? My name is Joshua Hopping and I am a Son of the Most High journeying through a foreign land following the Wild Goose (i.e. the Holy Spirit) one step at a time.
As I journey along the Way, I have the privilege of serving as the bi-vocational pastor of the Payette River Vineyard Christian Fellowship. I am also a voracious reader who loves studying church history, theology, and world missions.
This blog, "Requisite Danger", is a record of what God is teaching and showing me as I try to follow Him wherever He leads as well as occasional random thoughts. I pray that you will join me in this journey through online/offline interaction as this life is lived in community.
May His grace and peace be upon you.
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Over the years I have heard various comments about Randy Clark – most of which tended to focus on a small period in Randy’s life.
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