She was a Christian, or perhaps one who would better be described as one who was born and grew up in a typical traditional Protestant family and talked the talk instead of walking the walk out of pure habit and social conditioning; a real relationship with the living God an abstract concept more than a vital reality. Regardless, I was elated when she invited me to her comfortable home to meet her family one Easter Sunday and attend morning services.

Her father was an old school Protestant—the specific denomination escapes me—two younger sisters, and a mom who struck me as a little trying . Dad was a cement truck driver for a local company, barrel chested, and someone who I immediately liked. Archetypal Americans representative of mainstream Protestant "Christendom" in our times.

Their church was even more orthodox and traditional. A small local congregation with a postcard picture ready white building haling back to a more simpler time in the area’s—and the nation’s—history. A steeple, a bell, evenly spaced stain glass windows and a dozen steps to the front double doors. Coming from the background of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside and, even at that point, the cutting edge of contemporary Evangelical Christianity, the divide between new and old was about to become a little more understandable to me.

In the few hours since coffee at Lara’s house and private conversation with her father, I realized that all was not well in their relationship and the family overall. Her father felt Lara was "using" me to convince him she was still, indeed, keeping company with young men he could respect and honor; the conflicts they had been having over her after hours lifestyle verified by conversations with her two high school sisters. Her mom and I never really talked.

The service was not one that still resounds in my heart and mind. The mood was certainly restrained in light of the importance of the day. If the Holy Spirit was in this place and congregation, He was confined to the ordered, rigid wooden pews like the rest of us, and what followed confirmed it. At one point in the service the robed cleric introduced one female member of the choir who seemed to be known by the parishioners. She was to sing a solo rendition of "Oh, Jerusalem."

The young lady, without any music or back-up singers, belted out a passionate version of the old traditional song with a caliber voice that peeled like a bell on the professional level of a Crystal Lewis or other experienced high profile Christian singer. It was absolutely incredible! If she had rendered such a performance before the rowdy congregation of Harvest Christian Fellowship the crowd would have immediately been on their feet with an ovation that rocked the foundations of the building. I was a nano-second away from joining in so with this congregation and then....

Nothing.

Silence. Not a peep or any single acknowledgement of this inspired song of praise and worship. I looked to the left and the right at the undemonstrative observers, truly incredulous. Lara’s father was visibly moved, uttering quiet comments to himself, but the service moved on ... as the Holy Spirit—indeed present here—strained against the bands and chains of tradition, misguided public restraint, and was obviously quenched yet again within this one model of American "Christendom."

I spent the rest of the day with the family and some of their friends who had driven in from another state with a motor home. We went to the park in the next town, in the mountains, where they were camping. A great barbecue followed and a comforting time with this very mainstream family and Lara’s father as he modeled a somewhat lackluster Christian worldview and Biblical philosophy that had failed to impact his daughter as she became lost in the world. And thinking back now, in the light of twenty years of history in American "Christendom" and Evangelical Christianity, instructive.

The scandals that have since rocked "Christendom" in this nation, from the TV preacher scandals of the 80’s, homosexuality being accepted even into the clergy, to the pedophile priest crimes of today, that which two and three generations have grown up with understanding to be "Christianity" is clearly dying. A few diehards faithfully serve within these rotting and divided institutions, whether by misguided loyalty or emotional whimsy, hoping for "reformation" and "revival," yet, there will be none. As cancer undetected and not eradicated soon kills a body, these traditional institutions, riddled with and hobbled by the corrupt and sinful ideas of reprobate men, are even now unsalvageable.

Yet, in stark contrast to this, the rise of the Evangelical free "mega-churches" signifies an uncontestable new Holy Spirit inspired work in American Christianity, in response to the corrupt rebellion of the counterfeit clergy which have over-run the old. And it is even today rising out of the vacuum of need of the younger generation—because God is gracious.

Harvest Christian Fellowship is one high profile example of this new work. The leadership, not constraining the freedom of the Holy Spirit through man-made traditions, indeed, modeling the truth that "... the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (II Cor 3:17) have become the vehicle through which the Lord is bringing true revival to American Christianity and culture.

Pastor Greg Laurie and the senior Administration, employing the basic core Biblical philosophy of the New Testament Church, that, "... they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers ... and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved...." (Acts 2:32-47) have allowed the Holy Spirit to recreate the simplicity of the early Church in the contemporary world. And it is working.

Exploiting current communications mediums and resources, through Harvest Crusades, A New Beginning radio, and Harvest.org, the leadership, with the faithful assistance of thousands of volunteers, is impacting in a profound way the next generation of American citizens nationally—and beyond.

I recall a recent Sunday Day7@Harvest service I attended with my daughter. A well known contemporary Christian band was going to be there. Being a fan of the band myself, I attended, sitting among the typical 2000 plus gathering of young people, as the service was broadcast over the Internet.

Pastor Greg than took the opportunity to deliver a sermon directed towards this generation on Biblical morality and sexual purity in the midst of this corrupt and hedonistic culture. Pastor Greg was not careful with his words, but very pointedly communicated with these kids in black and white in a manner that even had me blushing. Being one who has some contacts with active duty and retired street cops and their lurid war stories, this isn’t easy to do. Yet these kids in attendance and over the Internet, and later, the radio, will certainly not hear this type of instruction from many other sources today.

Harvest, one of many others like it growing up over the rotting and collapsing hulks of traditional "Christendom" is alive; it has a pulse. It is a pristine example of being neither cold nor lukewarm but 'hot'. (Rev. 3:14-16) The vibrant music impacts the heart and mind; the massive congregation spontaneously raising their hands in worship demonstrating the impact of the Holy Spirit. It is dynamic, it is alive, and it is a model of the vigorous Holy Spirit power which drove and pressed the early New Testament Church to impact the known world, to the point that like the Thessalonians dealing with Paul and Jason, stated, "... These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also...." (Acts 17:6)

These kids, every Sunday and Wednesday night, every Harvest Crusade, are, figuratively, dancing on the graves of the old, corrupt traditions of "religious" men. Knowing Him intimately, personally, they "... Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (Gal 5:1) that being the bondage of dead religion, institutionalism, and man-made traditions.

And every service I sit down in the midst of this and "see" what is going on, the content, the continuing audacity and aggressive interdiction of American culture with the Word of God through Pastor Greg’s and the senior Administration’s sermons and the direction the Lord is taking Harvest Christian Fellowship, from Riverside County, California, to the White House and beyond, I am truly thankful. For many decades a small minority have contended for and defended in the cultural and political arenas of contemporary America the Biblical ideas this nation was founded on, and the Lord is now answering their faithfulness in a very tangible and real way. But not only here, elsewhere also.

There are the critics and the cynics who will glower and scowl, because this American rewakening doesn't fit their preconceived ideas and notions of what is "appropriate"; not fitting some model of earlier revivals but specific to our times, the "Jonah" types who will pout outside the walls of the "American Nineva"—like Michal, Saul's daughter, who despised David when he danced with all his might before the Lord (2 Sam. 6:12-16). These will also be the ones who, not having the eyes to "see," and understand the times, clucking their tongues and wagging their heads will be, like Michal was, relegated to obscurity and the sidelines; unfortunate observers of Christian history instead of players in that arena. Refusing to spiritually adapt, they will perish.

I saw Lara only one more time after that because of a route change; her father I never saw again. She was a mother now. She had taken up with a guy ten years her senior, who "owned a Corvette" and his own business. He took her on a trip to Tahiti and she ended up pregnant and was looking at a future as a single mother. I was grieved for the direction her life had taken. I was sure her father was even more disappointed. I encouraged her in the Lord and invited her again to attend my church, but to no avail, and we parted company.

I certainly don't want to unduly reproach the honorable clergy of the mainline denominations who serve with honor and integrity—some are indeed serving with vigor in frontline positions. Yet the distractions of the scandals wreaking havoc in "Christendom" are the end result of the bureaucratic and spiritual impotency inherent in denominationalism and the American nation is being grievously harmed by it. Lara and her family are just one example of many more. The oppressive denominational environment they were victims of is just one model of a clergy unresponsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and being counterfeit, "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." (II Peter 2:19)

Revival and restoration in America is therefore coming through the free Evangelical Christian community as they serve, like the early Church, the Lord and not some institution, as "... a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work." (II Timothy 2:21) May the Lord continue to be gracious in His great work of restoration as He discards the old, and brings forth the new ... on the shoulders and in the hearts of the young, and the young in spirit.

"Dancing On The Graves"

One in a series - An American Rewakening ~
http://www.salemthesoldier.us/AmericanRewakening

Michael A. Baker - Copyright © 2005
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