Post by StationAdministration on Apr 8, 2006 8:50:01 GMT
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Nation
Every Nation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Every Nation Churches is an organization of Charismatic churches. From its inception in 1994 until 2004, it was known as Morning Star International (MSI). Every Nation identifies itself as a leader in the New Apostolic Reformation led by C. Peter Wagner.
Every Nation performs many of the same functions of a denomination. However, because of its empahsis on relational ministry ties it prefers terms like "family" or "movement" as way of emphasizing this distinction. This is common for many Charismatic organizations. It is based in Brentwood, Tennessee; a suburb of Nashville.
Several of Every Nation's leaders and ministries have past connections to Maranatha Campus Ministries, a highly controversial Charismatic organization from the 1980s.
History
In 1994, Rice Broocks, Steve Murrell, and Phil Bonasso, who had all been a part of Maranatha, formed Morning Star International as an umbrella organization for their ministries. In a little over a decade, Every Nation churches and outreaches have been established in over 50 nations.
Every Nation is a high energy ministry with a strong emphasis on growth. Broocks and his colleagues had a particular gift for reaching famous people, and opening doors. Bestselling author Stephen Mansfield, for example, joined the movement around 2004 after receiving ministry from Broocks. The manager, and some members of the Newsboys, one of the largest acts in Christian Contemporary Music, have also recently working with Broocks and another prominent Every Nation leader, Jim Laffoon. In addition, Broocks met Ariel Sharon in 2005 and gained entree into Jerusalem through the influence of the deputy acting mayor. [1]
Every Nation is committed to combining the framework of historic orthodox Christianity and theology with the power of the Holy Spirit. Their two-yea, local church based Bible school, Every Nation Leadership Institute (ENLI), is designed to help the local church accomplish its mission of making disciples, training leaders, planting churches and equipping believers to fulfill their calling in Christ. ENLI attempts to distill the best of a seminary curriculum into a program for laypersons. It includes courses such as New Testament, Old Testament, Discipleship, Leadership, and other Christian staples.
The mission statement of Every Nation is "To honor God and advance His Kingdom through church planting, campus ministry and world missions." It's core values are: Lordship, Discipleship, Leadership, Spiritual Family, and Evangelism. In addition, Every Nation places an emphasis on being 'relevant' to contemporary culture. It has a vision especially for changing the arts and entertainment industries, which have long been the nearly exclusive territory of non-Christians. Major leaders in the movement have therefore based their activity in Nashville and Los Angeles, and more recently New York.
Every Nation, like other movements in the "New Apostolic Reformation", emphasizes church planting, and actively recruits among existing churches. Through these two methods, Every Nation has continued to grow steadily throughout it's lifespan. It has been involved in ministry on six continents, including locations like Turkey, South Africa, the Amazon region of Peru, New Zealand, India, Canada, Austria, and the People's Republic of China.
An example of a planted church is the church in New York City in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy known as Morning Star New York (MSNY). Acquired churches included places like Bethel Chapel in Nashville, founded and pastored by remarkable Bible teacher Ray McCollum, Rick Shelton's church in Missouri, remnants of a Maranatha founded church in Boston, In Focus Church in Augusta, Georgia, and others. On a much larger scale, Morning Star effectively doubled its size around the year 2000 with the addition of the His People Movement led by Paul Daniel. This South African movement was strong in Europe and Africa, there had been little Morning Star presence in Europe, and no Morning Star presece in Africa up to this point. By 2006, Every Nation churches numbered several hundred around the globe.
Doctrine
When discussing the doctrine of a movement as large and broad as Every Nation, it is important to note that a variety of perspectives and practices exist under one umbrella. The focus of this article is to capture the official doctrine in context as well as common expressions of that doctrine.
Every Nation reflects a blend of influences, much like its predecessor Maranatha Campus Ministries did. This includes Word of Faith, Reformed theology, Christian Reconstructionism, and Charismatic theology (which itself was influenced by the Latter Rain Movement). Perhaps the closest analogue, however, is the Shepherding Movement. For example, one of the key founders and shapers of the doctrine, Steve Murrell, essentially mentions on his blog [2] that he "cut his teeth" on New Wine magazine, the official publication of the Shepherding Movement.
The core values of Every Nation reflect this influence, more than the others:
Lordship
Evangelism
Discipleship
Leadership Development
Family
Lordship is reflective of the message of Lordship Salvation, as opposed to "Free Grace" salvation. Lordship is the emphasis on obedience as a condition of salvation. "Free Grace" proponents emphasize belief as the only condition of salvation. Practical application of the Lordship doctrine has been uneven within the movement. Some use it simply as a tool to confront those who may have considered themselves "saved" without ever taking a step of obedience to Christ. On the other hand, some emphasize obedience to the extent that obedience appears to be a condition of salvation, rather than a fruit.
Discipleship is a common Christian term which can mean any number of things, from following up a new believer, to personal training, to radical commitment to Christ, to absolute surrender of your life to another person, as was taught in the Shepherding Movement. Every Nation practice and doctrine reflects the influence of all of these. While Every Nation leaders and members would explicitly disclaim the need to surrender absolutely to another human being, the Every Nation concept of discipleship has definitely included submission to a "discipler", and it is this concept which makes Every Nation practice distinct from standard evangelical practice. In fact, embedded into the entire structure of Every Nation is the centrality of Authority. One should always be in relationship with "a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy" that is someone to whom their life is submitted, someone who is a peer, and someone they are discipling.
Family
Like the shepherding movement, Every Nation teaches the importance of a miniter's investment in his family. This is meant as a way of combatting the traditional pattern of ministers who give more time to their ministry than their family and children. The "Family" value, has a twofold meaning, however. Ministers are to be faithful to their families, but members must also be faithful to their "Spiritual Family". A spiritual family is taught to be a specific church movement (in a local church expression) chosen by God. Like a natural family, you can not chose it, and you can not leave it righteously unless God calls you directly to do so. The practical outworking of this doctrine is that members often find it uncomfortable to leave. Unlike the average evangelical church, where members come and go by their own volition, the sense of God's calling adds a significant weight to leaving. Those who leave, and those who are left often feel that the departer has walked away from "God's best", and in worse cases has rebelled against God.
Evangelism
Every Nation recognizes that many Christian movements, especially Charismatic movements, have lost their emphasis on evangelism, which was the central feature of Christ's mission. Every Nation leader Rice Broocks has even given a new term to Matthew 28:18-20, which has traditionally been called the Great Commission--The Apostolic Mandate. Despite this core emphasis, a large percentage of new Every Nation's members are not truly new converts to Christianity, but those with Christian backgrounds who have received life transforming Christian training.
Leadership
Every Nation believes that every person is called to be a leader. This is intended as a corrective to the traditional separation between clergy and laity within the Christian Church. Every Nation has been very effective at developing and reaching leaders, an area notably absent from most Christian expressions. This is part of the rationale behind Every Nation's heavy emphasis on Campus outreach--this is where society's new leaders will be drawn from. With this emphasis, other segments of society, where the traditional Christian base resides--the poor, the addicted, the broken--are generally non-emphasized.
Scandals
Champions for Christ, a ministry to college and professional athletes, came under fire in 1998 after several NFL teams complained that the ministry might have been exploiting players under its wing.
In May of 2003 Pastor Paul Daniel, senior pastor of His People Church in Cape Town was dismissed after confessing to two extramarital affairs. He'd relocated to Nashville from South Africa for a period of readjustment in January 2003 after complaints by his staff. Errol Naidoo, press officer for His People, cited ill health as reason for his initial relocation. Paul Daniel had stepped down in November 2002 after intervention by Morning Star's senior leadership. Sometime prior to this date he was demoted from Apostle to senior pastor. There had been consistent rumors of his infidelities prior to his dismissal. Members of the American churches did not see this scandal as implicating the U.S. based leadership, however. Daniel and his His People movement had only recently been added and were unknown to most in the American churches. It was, in fact, explained to them at the time that exposure of Daniel's sin, without destroying the His People movement was a testament to Morning Star's apostolic form of government.
Events of more direct consequence to the overall fate of the movement began in in January of 2004, when Tom "Big Tommy" Sirotnak was kicked out of the ministry after teaching on the priesthood of all believers. He had come under the influence of Dr. Edwin Louis Cole, author of Maximized Manhood. Although Tommy had been a long time loyalist, even naming his son "Rice" after Broocks, he was accused of rebellion and dismissed. This was the first in a sequence of events which began to raise concerns among Morning Star members. News of this was spread through an unsolicited mass email sent to all of the Morning Star pastors. [3]
In May of 2004, Greg Ball, member of the apostolic (governing) board of the ministry, founder and leader of Champions for Christ, and pastor of Morning Star's church in Austin, Texas, was removed from his position as head due to financial impropriety, as well as continual problems with his authoritarian leadership style.
In June of 2005, Every Nation was sued due to an incident with the ministry's high school outreach, Victory Clubs (now known as Every Nation Youth). The parents of two students at a Nashville high school alleged that a high-pressure environment at that school's Victory Club chapter led to health problems for their children. These accusations are similar to those which surrounded Maranatha in the 1980s. It was shortly after this that the name of the ministry's name was changed to Every Nation, to the surprise of many in the movement. Although other valid reasons were put forward, some speculated that there might be a connection to the scandals. The case will go to trial at some point in 2006.
In August of 2005, Tony Fetchel, a leader of the Graduate School of Campus ministry in Los Angeles was found to be committing adultery over a long period with the adult daughter of the ministry's number two leader, Phil Bonasso. As a result of this scandal other leaders were given the opportunity to examine Bonasso's leadership style, and came to the conclusion that the Graduate School had an authoritarian environment. It was this environment which allowed the affair to continue for such an extended period unconfronted. As a result, the decision was made to move the Graduate School to Nashville.
By January of 2006, as the leadership team investigated Bonasso's ministries more thoroughly, it was also becoming clear that there were financial problems in the national ministry as well (Bonasso was Executive Vice President and effectively CFO). The finances had been under the control of Bonasso, and since donors had not been able to obtain a statement of their disbursement this led to allegations of impropriety and triggered other leaders to initiate an audit, which was performed by Capin Crouse, LLC. The preliminary findings of this audit were discussed in a leadership meeting held in Palm Springs, California in mid-January. The nature of the findings of the audit is disputed.
Many members of the ministry were not informed of these incidents, with different churches and different levels of leadership being given different amounts of detail. The combination of this secrecy and the seriousness of these issues led many to seek information from the internet, and the factnet.org bulletin board became a clearing house of anonymously shared information among various concerned parties. Through this board, not only did the scandals come to increasing attention, numerous other smaller allegations of similar nature arose from former members.
During this time, Every Nation also contracted Olan Hendrix, co-founder of the ECFA to help it in restructuring with an eye to preventing future problems. During this time, the ministry was not without its successes. However, as the allegations piled on, members and leaders alike became increasingly concerned. Many remained optimistic that the audit and restructuring would allow the ministry to continue growth and success of the ministry.
Links to Maranatha
Some former members of Maranatha Campus Ministries and Every Nation contend that Every Nation is an intentional repackaging of Maranatha designed to hide Maranatha's controversial past, while retaining every essential aspect of that past.
Like many organizations influenced by the Shepherding Movement, Maranatha became very authoritarian during its existence. Leaders exercised strict control over members' lives. It was expelled from two universities in the early 1980s amid allegations of cult-like behavior. An ad hoc group called in by Maranatha to help answer accusations that it was a cult issued a very critical report in 1983. The report concluded that unless Maranatha changed, "we would not recommend this organization to anyone." The group dissolved in 1989 amid continued scrutiny from former members, the press and university officials.
Every Nation's leaders rarely mention their Maranatha past, perhaps due to Maranatha's reputation from the 1980s. For instance, neither Broocks nor Murrell mention their Maranatha connections on their Web sites. However, there are proven corporate links between various Every Nation churches and ministries and Maranatha. These corporate ties, combined with similarities in practice, have led some to conclude that Every Nation and Maranatha are one and the same.
Those who contend that Every Nation is a repackaged Maranatha note that the top positions in Every Nation (including Broocks, Bonasso and Murrell) are held almost exclusively by former Maranatha leaders, or were directly trained by someone who was in Maranatha. They also point to several former Maranatha churches in the Every Nation network. At least five operate under corporate bylaws dating to their time in Maranatha:
Every Nation Palos Verdes in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, a suburb of Los Angeles (incorporated as Maranatha Christian Church of the South Bay in 1986)
King's Park International Church in Durham, North Carolina (incorporated as Maranatha Christian Church of the Triangle in 1986)
Metro Morningstar in Sterling, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC (incorporated as Maranatha Christian Church in 1984)
Harvest Valley Christian Church in Pleasanton, California in the San Francisco Bay Area (incorporated as Maranatha Christian Church of the East Bay in 1986)
Beacon City Church in Somerville, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston (see below)
They also cite corporate filings made in Maranatha's name after the organization officially disbanded in 1989. For instance, the Massachusetts certificate of authority for the original Maranatha corporation did not lapse until 1994--four years after Maranatha disbanded. They also claim that while Every Nation's leaders claim to have disavowed some of Maranatha's more controversial teachings, these teachings are still practiced. The allegations against the Every Nation high school outreach in Nashville, for instance, are very similar to those made against Maranatha in the 1980s.
Those who believe that Maranatha and Every Nation are separate organizations point out that Bob Weiner, founder and driving force behind Maranatha, is in no way a part of Every Nation. This is significant, because Weiner was regarded as Maranatha's "apostle," and therefore its chief influencer in every way. Moreover, they believe that the more extreme practices of Maranatha have been brought into a healthier balance in Every Nation.
The example of one of Every Nation's most important churches, King's Park International Church (KPIC) in Durham, North Carolina; is instructive. It grew out of Maranatha's outreaches in the Triangle region of North Carolina, which is home to three major universities--the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and Duke University. The first outreach was at UNC in 1981; later efforts at Duke and N.C. State were conducted under the oversight of the UNC chapter. KPIC claims to have been founded as a church body in 1990 (most recently on its worship ministry site). However, it was actually incorporated in North Carolina as Maranatha Christian Church of the Triangle in 1986 [4]. It changed its name to Triangle Christian Fellowship in 1990 and to KPIC in 1997. It has never reincorporated at any stage in its history, but operates under its original 1986 bylaws, as amended.
KPIC's founding pastor, Ron Lewis, is a member of Every Nation's Apostolic Team, and is considered to be one of a group of pastors one rung below Broocks, Bonasso and Murrell. He claimed to have left Maranatha in the late 1980s because many of its practices "weren't the most healthy for Christians to live and grow by." [5] However, in 1990, Lewis filed himself as the North Carolina registered agent for a new Maranatha corporation that incorporated in Florida in 1989, shortly before Maranatha officially disbanded.[6] He was also as listed on a Texas certificate of authority as vice president of this same corporation. This certificate was also filed in 1990. Both certificates are still valid as of 2006. He is also listed along with Broocks, Bonasso and Murrell on a page of "friends and former members" of Maranatha on the Website of Maranatha's former mouthpiece publication, The Forerunner. [7] Lewis stepped down as senior pastor of KPIC in 2002, but is still the president of the church and is generally understood to hold the real power.
In this case, the corporate links between KPIC and Maranatha are almost uncontestable, and one can make a strong case for spiritual continuity as well, given that Lewis has been the driving force behind KPIC for a quarter-century. In addition, Lewis' successor as senior pastor, Taylor Stewart, worked for several years in the Pacific Islands, and was thus under Murrell's covering.
In 2001, KPIC sent a church planting team to Boston. This team joined with a few leaders remaining from Tree of Life City Church, a church which joined Morning Star soon after its founding, to form Morning Star International Church of Boston, which has since changed its name to Beacon City Church. Tree of Life was a former Maranatha church with roots in Maranatha's outreaches in Boston. Beacon City Church operates under Tree of Life's corporate charter, which was adopted in 1986 while it was part of Maranatha. It is therefore the legal successor to Maranatha's efforts in Boston. In addition, the Every Nation Campus Ministries chapter at MIT has been in continuous existence since 1983, when it was a Maranatha chapter. [8] Beacon City's original associate pastor, Brian Diver (best known outside the Boston area as the main spokesman against efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in Massachusetts), had been pastor of Tree of Life from the waning days of Maranatha. Diver briefly took the church away from its Maranatha roots while associated with a local pastor, David Hill. However, he never sought to reincorporate the church, continuing to operate under an amended version of the original Maranatha charter. When Tree of Life joined Every Nation, Hill departed, and the church dwindled. Diver has since become associate pastor of KPIC.
While the corporate links to Maranatha are beyond dispute, proving spiritual continuity is more difficult. It is worth noting that the church planting team was trained at KPIC, a former Maranatha church which has been led by the same pastor since the Maranatha days. The current pastor, Wayne Mitchell, for instance, headed KPIC's internationals ministry for a decade. Beacon City is thus under Lewis' apostolic covering. However, none of the current members of Beacon City's ministry team date directly to the Maranatha days in Boston, and Beacon City's vision and attitude, at least on paper, are very different from those of Maranatha.
His People Church in Johannesburg, South Africa was formed in 1992 after His People Campus Ministry at the University of the Withingyersrand united with Maranatha Church in Johannesburg led by William Bennot. As Vice President of His People International, William Bennot maintained ties with former Maranatha ministers such as Rice Broocks. His People Church led by Paul Daniel (an international group of churches) became a member of the Every Nation family of churches around 2001 after cooperation began in 1996 and unity talks around this time as well. The inclusion of His People to the EN stable was considerable. His People, like Every Nation, had been seen as a leader in the New Apotolic Reformation. Its President, Paul Daniel, had also been accredited to C. Peter Wagner's Apotolic Roundtable.
Selected Books
Every Nation in our Generation, by Rice Broocks
Change the Campus, Change the World by Rice Broocks
The Purple Book: Biblical Foundations for Building Strong Disciples by Rice Broocks and Steve Murrell.
The New Apostolic Churches edited by C. Peter Wagner (article by Broocks)
Affiliated Organizations
Morning Star International (MSI; now Every Nation Churches)
Campus Harvest Ministries
Campus Missions International (CMI)
Champions For Christ (CFC)
Victory Campus Ministries (now Every Nation Campus Ministries)
Victory Leadership Institute (now Every Nation Leadership Institute)
Every Nation Churches/Ministries (ENC)
[edit]
External links
Every Nation Churches and Ministries Website
The 2010 Initiative
Every Nation Leadership Institute
Webpage of Victory Christian Fellowship in the Philippines
Forerunner, published by Maranatha since its inception
Every Nation Campus Ministries
Maranatha Campus Ministries, Morning Star International and Every Nation Churches and Ministries Historical Timeline
Every Nation Exposed
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Nation"
Every Nation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Every Nation Churches is an organization of Charismatic churches. From its inception in 1994 until 2004, it was known as Morning Star International (MSI). Every Nation identifies itself as a leader in the New Apostolic Reformation led by C. Peter Wagner.
Every Nation performs many of the same functions of a denomination. However, because of its empahsis on relational ministry ties it prefers terms like "family" or "movement" as way of emphasizing this distinction. This is common for many Charismatic organizations. It is based in Brentwood, Tennessee; a suburb of Nashville.
Several of Every Nation's leaders and ministries have past connections to Maranatha Campus Ministries, a highly controversial Charismatic organization from the 1980s.
History
In 1994, Rice Broocks, Steve Murrell, and Phil Bonasso, who had all been a part of Maranatha, formed Morning Star International as an umbrella organization for their ministries. In a little over a decade, Every Nation churches and outreaches have been established in over 50 nations.
Every Nation is a high energy ministry with a strong emphasis on growth. Broocks and his colleagues had a particular gift for reaching famous people, and opening doors. Bestselling author Stephen Mansfield, for example, joined the movement around 2004 after receiving ministry from Broocks. The manager, and some members of the Newsboys, one of the largest acts in Christian Contemporary Music, have also recently working with Broocks and another prominent Every Nation leader, Jim Laffoon. In addition, Broocks met Ariel Sharon in 2005 and gained entree into Jerusalem through the influence of the deputy acting mayor. [1]
Every Nation is committed to combining the framework of historic orthodox Christianity and theology with the power of the Holy Spirit. Their two-yea, local church based Bible school, Every Nation Leadership Institute (ENLI), is designed to help the local church accomplish its mission of making disciples, training leaders, planting churches and equipping believers to fulfill their calling in Christ. ENLI attempts to distill the best of a seminary curriculum into a program for laypersons. It includes courses such as New Testament, Old Testament, Discipleship, Leadership, and other Christian staples.
The mission statement of Every Nation is "To honor God and advance His Kingdom through church planting, campus ministry and world missions." It's core values are: Lordship, Discipleship, Leadership, Spiritual Family, and Evangelism. In addition, Every Nation places an emphasis on being 'relevant' to contemporary culture. It has a vision especially for changing the arts and entertainment industries, which have long been the nearly exclusive territory of non-Christians. Major leaders in the movement have therefore based their activity in Nashville and Los Angeles, and more recently New York.
Every Nation, like other movements in the "New Apostolic Reformation", emphasizes church planting, and actively recruits among existing churches. Through these two methods, Every Nation has continued to grow steadily throughout it's lifespan. It has been involved in ministry on six continents, including locations like Turkey, South Africa, the Amazon region of Peru, New Zealand, India, Canada, Austria, and the People's Republic of China.
An example of a planted church is the church in New York City in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy known as Morning Star New York (MSNY). Acquired churches included places like Bethel Chapel in Nashville, founded and pastored by remarkable Bible teacher Ray McCollum, Rick Shelton's church in Missouri, remnants of a Maranatha founded church in Boston, In Focus Church in Augusta, Georgia, and others. On a much larger scale, Morning Star effectively doubled its size around the year 2000 with the addition of the His People Movement led by Paul Daniel. This South African movement was strong in Europe and Africa, there had been little Morning Star presence in Europe, and no Morning Star presece in Africa up to this point. By 2006, Every Nation churches numbered several hundred around the globe.
Doctrine
When discussing the doctrine of a movement as large and broad as Every Nation, it is important to note that a variety of perspectives and practices exist under one umbrella. The focus of this article is to capture the official doctrine in context as well as common expressions of that doctrine.
Every Nation reflects a blend of influences, much like its predecessor Maranatha Campus Ministries did. This includes Word of Faith, Reformed theology, Christian Reconstructionism, and Charismatic theology (which itself was influenced by the Latter Rain Movement). Perhaps the closest analogue, however, is the Shepherding Movement. For example, one of the key founders and shapers of the doctrine, Steve Murrell, essentially mentions on his blog [2] that he "cut his teeth" on New Wine magazine, the official publication of the Shepherding Movement.
The core values of Every Nation reflect this influence, more than the others:
Lordship
Evangelism
Discipleship
Leadership Development
Family
Lordship is reflective of the message of Lordship Salvation, as opposed to "Free Grace" salvation. Lordship is the emphasis on obedience as a condition of salvation. "Free Grace" proponents emphasize belief as the only condition of salvation. Practical application of the Lordship doctrine has been uneven within the movement. Some use it simply as a tool to confront those who may have considered themselves "saved" without ever taking a step of obedience to Christ. On the other hand, some emphasize obedience to the extent that obedience appears to be a condition of salvation, rather than a fruit.
Discipleship is a common Christian term which can mean any number of things, from following up a new believer, to personal training, to radical commitment to Christ, to absolute surrender of your life to another person, as was taught in the Shepherding Movement. Every Nation practice and doctrine reflects the influence of all of these. While Every Nation leaders and members would explicitly disclaim the need to surrender absolutely to another human being, the Every Nation concept of discipleship has definitely included submission to a "discipler", and it is this concept which makes Every Nation practice distinct from standard evangelical practice. In fact, embedded into the entire structure of Every Nation is the centrality of Authority. One should always be in relationship with "a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy" that is someone to whom their life is submitted, someone who is a peer, and someone they are discipling.
Family
Like the shepherding movement, Every Nation teaches the importance of a miniter's investment in his family. This is meant as a way of combatting the traditional pattern of ministers who give more time to their ministry than their family and children. The "Family" value, has a twofold meaning, however. Ministers are to be faithful to their families, but members must also be faithful to their "Spiritual Family". A spiritual family is taught to be a specific church movement (in a local church expression) chosen by God. Like a natural family, you can not chose it, and you can not leave it righteously unless God calls you directly to do so. The practical outworking of this doctrine is that members often find it uncomfortable to leave. Unlike the average evangelical church, where members come and go by their own volition, the sense of God's calling adds a significant weight to leaving. Those who leave, and those who are left often feel that the departer has walked away from "God's best", and in worse cases has rebelled against God.
Evangelism
Every Nation recognizes that many Christian movements, especially Charismatic movements, have lost their emphasis on evangelism, which was the central feature of Christ's mission. Every Nation leader Rice Broocks has even given a new term to Matthew 28:18-20, which has traditionally been called the Great Commission--The Apostolic Mandate. Despite this core emphasis, a large percentage of new Every Nation's members are not truly new converts to Christianity, but those with Christian backgrounds who have received life transforming Christian training.
Leadership
Every Nation believes that every person is called to be a leader. This is intended as a corrective to the traditional separation between clergy and laity within the Christian Church. Every Nation has been very effective at developing and reaching leaders, an area notably absent from most Christian expressions. This is part of the rationale behind Every Nation's heavy emphasis on Campus outreach--this is where society's new leaders will be drawn from. With this emphasis, other segments of society, where the traditional Christian base resides--the poor, the addicted, the broken--are generally non-emphasized.
Scandals
Champions for Christ, a ministry to college and professional athletes, came under fire in 1998 after several NFL teams complained that the ministry might have been exploiting players under its wing.
In May of 2003 Pastor Paul Daniel, senior pastor of His People Church in Cape Town was dismissed after confessing to two extramarital affairs. He'd relocated to Nashville from South Africa for a period of readjustment in January 2003 after complaints by his staff. Errol Naidoo, press officer for His People, cited ill health as reason for his initial relocation. Paul Daniel had stepped down in November 2002 after intervention by Morning Star's senior leadership. Sometime prior to this date he was demoted from Apostle to senior pastor. There had been consistent rumors of his infidelities prior to his dismissal. Members of the American churches did not see this scandal as implicating the U.S. based leadership, however. Daniel and his His People movement had only recently been added and were unknown to most in the American churches. It was, in fact, explained to them at the time that exposure of Daniel's sin, without destroying the His People movement was a testament to Morning Star's apostolic form of government.
Events of more direct consequence to the overall fate of the movement began in in January of 2004, when Tom "Big Tommy" Sirotnak was kicked out of the ministry after teaching on the priesthood of all believers. He had come under the influence of Dr. Edwin Louis Cole, author of Maximized Manhood. Although Tommy had been a long time loyalist, even naming his son "Rice" after Broocks, he was accused of rebellion and dismissed. This was the first in a sequence of events which began to raise concerns among Morning Star members. News of this was spread through an unsolicited mass email sent to all of the Morning Star pastors. [3]
In May of 2004, Greg Ball, member of the apostolic (governing) board of the ministry, founder and leader of Champions for Christ, and pastor of Morning Star's church in Austin, Texas, was removed from his position as head due to financial impropriety, as well as continual problems with his authoritarian leadership style.
In June of 2005, Every Nation was sued due to an incident with the ministry's high school outreach, Victory Clubs (now known as Every Nation Youth). The parents of two students at a Nashville high school alleged that a high-pressure environment at that school's Victory Club chapter led to health problems for their children. These accusations are similar to those which surrounded Maranatha in the 1980s. It was shortly after this that the name of the ministry's name was changed to Every Nation, to the surprise of many in the movement. Although other valid reasons were put forward, some speculated that there might be a connection to the scandals. The case will go to trial at some point in 2006.
In August of 2005, Tony Fetchel, a leader of the Graduate School of Campus ministry in Los Angeles was found to be committing adultery over a long period with the adult daughter of the ministry's number two leader, Phil Bonasso. As a result of this scandal other leaders were given the opportunity to examine Bonasso's leadership style, and came to the conclusion that the Graduate School had an authoritarian environment. It was this environment which allowed the affair to continue for such an extended period unconfronted. As a result, the decision was made to move the Graduate School to Nashville.
By January of 2006, as the leadership team investigated Bonasso's ministries more thoroughly, it was also becoming clear that there were financial problems in the national ministry as well (Bonasso was Executive Vice President and effectively CFO). The finances had been under the control of Bonasso, and since donors had not been able to obtain a statement of their disbursement this led to allegations of impropriety and triggered other leaders to initiate an audit, which was performed by Capin Crouse, LLC. The preliminary findings of this audit were discussed in a leadership meeting held in Palm Springs, California in mid-January. The nature of the findings of the audit is disputed.
Many members of the ministry were not informed of these incidents, with different churches and different levels of leadership being given different amounts of detail. The combination of this secrecy and the seriousness of these issues led many to seek information from the internet, and the factnet.org bulletin board became a clearing house of anonymously shared information among various concerned parties. Through this board, not only did the scandals come to increasing attention, numerous other smaller allegations of similar nature arose from former members.
During this time, Every Nation also contracted Olan Hendrix, co-founder of the ECFA to help it in restructuring with an eye to preventing future problems. During this time, the ministry was not without its successes. However, as the allegations piled on, members and leaders alike became increasingly concerned. Many remained optimistic that the audit and restructuring would allow the ministry to continue growth and success of the ministry.
Links to Maranatha
Some former members of Maranatha Campus Ministries and Every Nation contend that Every Nation is an intentional repackaging of Maranatha designed to hide Maranatha's controversial past, while retaining every essential aspect of that past.
Like many organizations influenced by the Shepherding Movement, Maranatha became very authoritarian during its existence. Leaders exercised strict control over members' lives. It was expelled from two universities in the early 1980s amid allegations of cult-like behavior. An ad hoc group called in by Maranatha to help answer accusations that it was a cult issued a very critical report in 1983. The report concluded that unless Maranatha changed, "we would not recommend this organization to anyone." The group dissolved in 1989 amid continued scrutiny from former members, the press and university officials.
Every Nation's leaders rarely mention their Maranatha past, perhaps due to Maranatha's reputation from the 1980s. For instance, neither Broocks nor Murrell mention their Maranatha connections on their Web sites. However, there are proven corporate links between various Every Nation churches and ministries and Maranatha. These corporate ties, combined with similarities in practice, have led some to conclude that Every Nation and Maranatha are one and the same.
Those who contend that Every Nation is a repackaged Maranatha note that the top positions in Every Nation (including Broocks, Bonasso and Murrell) are held almost exclusively by former Maranatha leaders, or were directly trained by someone who was in Maranatha. They also point to several former Maranatha churches in the Every Nation network. At least five operate under corporate bylaws dating to their time in Maranatha:
Every Nation Palos Verdes in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, a suburb of Los Angeles (incorporated as Maranatha Christian Church of the South Bay in 1986)
King's Park International Church in Durham, North Carolina (incorporated as Maranatha Christian Church of the Triangle in 1986)
Metro Morningstar in Sterling, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC (incorporated as Maranatha Christian Church in 1984)
Harvest Valley Christian Church in Pleasanton, California in the San Francisco Bay Area (incorporated as Maranatha Christian Church of the East Bay in 1986)
Beacon City Church in Somerville, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston (see below)
They also cite corporate filings made in Maranatha's name after the organization officially disbanded in 1989. For instance, the Massachusetts certificate of authority for the original Maranatha corporation did not lapse until 1994--four years after Maranatha disbanded. They also claim that while Every Nation's leaders claim to have disavowed some of Maranatha's more controversial teachings, these teachings are still practiced. The allegations against the Every Nation high school outreach in Nashville, for instance, are very similar to those made against Maranatha in the 1980s.
Those who believe that Maranatha and Every Nation are separate organizations point out that Bob Weiner, founder and driving force behind Maranatha, is in no way a part of Every Nation. This is significant, because Weiner was regarded as Maranatha's "apostle," and therefore its chief influencer in every way. Moreover, they believe that the more extreme practices of Maranatha have been brought into a healthier balance in Every Nation.
The example of one of Every Nation's most important churches, King's Park International Church (KPIC) in Durham, North Carolina; is instructive. It grew out of Maranatha's outreaches in the Triangle region of North Carolina, which is home to three major universities--the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and Duke University. The first outreach was at UNC in 1981; later efforts at Duke and N.C. State were conducted under the oversight of the UNC chapter. KPIC claims to have been founded as a church body in 1990 (most recently on its worship ministry site). However, it was actually incorporated in North Carolina as Maranatha Christian Church of the Triangle in 1986 [4]. It changed its name to Triangle Christian Fellowship in 1990 and to KPIC in 1997. It has never reincorporated at any stage in its history, but operates under its original 1986 bylaws, as amended.
KPIC's founding pastor, Ron Lewis, is a member of Every Nation's Apostolic Team, and is considered to be one of a group of pastors one rung below Broocks, Bonasso and Murrell. He claimed to have left Maranatha in the late 1980s because many of its practices "weren't the most healthy for Christians to live and grow by." [5] However, in 1990, Lewis filed himself as the North Carolina registered agent for a new Maranatha corporation that incorporated in Florida in 1989, shortly before Maranatha officially disbanded.[6] He was also as listed on a Texas certificate of authority as vice president of this same corporation. This certificate was also filed in 1990. Both certificates are still valid as of 2006. He is also listed along with Broocks, Bonasso and Murrell on a page of "friends and former members" of Maranatha on the Website of Maranatha's former mouthpiece publication, The Forerunner. [7] Lewis stepped down as senior pastor of KPIC in 2002, but is still the president of the church and is generally understood to hold the real power.
In this case, the corporate links between KPIC and Maranatha are almost uncontestable, and one can make a strong case for spiritual continuity as well, given that Lewis has been the driving force behind KPIC for a quarter-century. In addition, Lewis' successor as senior pastor, Taylor Stewart, worked for several years in the Pacific Islands, and was thus under Murrell's covering.
In 2001, KPIC sent a church planting team to Boston. This team joined with a few leaders remaining from Tree of Life City Church, a church which joined Morning Star soon after its founding, to form Morning Star International Church of Boston, which has since changed its name to Beacon City Church. Tree of Life was a former Maranatha church with roots in Maranatha's outreaches in Boston. Beacon City Church operates under Tree of Life's corporate charter, which was adopted in 1986 while it was part of Maranatha. It is therefore the legal successor to Maranatha's efforts in Boston. In addition, the Every Nation Campus Ministries chapter at MIT has been in continuous existence since 1983, when it was a Maranatha chapter. [8] Beacon City's original associate pastor, Brian Diver (best known outside the Boston area as the main spokesman against efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in Massachusetts), had been pastor of Tree of Life from the waning days of Maranatha. Diver briefly took the church away from its Maranatha roots while associated with a local pastor, David Hill. However, he never sought to reincorporate the church, continuing to operate under an amended version of the original Maranatha charter. When Tree of Life joined Every Nation, Hill departed, and the church dwindled. Diver has since become associate pastor of KPIC.
While the corporate links to Maranatha are beyond dispute, proving spiritual continuity is more difficult. It is worth noting that the church planting team was trained at KPIC, a former Maranatha church which has been led by the same pastor since the Maranatha days. The current pastor, Wayne Mitchell, for instance, headed KPIC's internationals ministry for a decade. Beacon City is thus under Lewis' apostolic covering. However, none of the current members of Beacon City's ministry team date directly to the Maranatha days in Boston, and Beacon City's vision and attitude, at least on paper, are very different from those of Maranatha.
His People Church in Johannesburg, South Africa was formed in 1992 after His People Campus Ministry at the University of the Withingyersrand united with Maranatha Church in Johannesburg led by William Bennot. As Vice President of His People International, William Bennot maintained ties with former Maranatha ministers such as Rice Broocks. His People Church led by Paul Daniel (an international group of churches) became a member of the Every Nation family of churches around 2001 after cooperation began in 1996 and unity talks around this time as well. The inclusion of His People to the EN stable was considerable. His People, like Every Nation, had been seen as a leader in the New Apotolic Reformation. Its President, Paul Daniel, had also been accredited to C. Peter Wagner's Apotolic Roundtable.
Selected Books
Every Nation in our Generation, by Rice Broocks
Change the Campus, Change the World by Rice Broocks
The Purple Book: Biblical Foundations for Building Strong Disciples by Rice Broocks and Steve Murrell.
The New Apostolic Churches edited by C. Peter Wagner (article by Broocks)
Affiliated Organizations
Morning Star International (MSI; now Every Nation Churches)
Campus Harvest Ministries
Campus Missions International (CMI)
Champions For Christ (CFC)
Victory Campus Ministries (now Every Nation Campus Ministries)
Victory Leadership Institute (now Every Nation Leadership Institute)
Every Nation Churches/Ministries (ENC)
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External links
Every Nation Churches and Ministries Website
The 2010 Initiative
Every Nation Leadership Institute
Webpage of Victory Christian Fellowship in the Philippines
Forerunner, published by Maranatha since its inception
Every Nation Campus Ministries
Maranatha Campus Ministries, Morning Star International and Every Nation Churches and Ministries Historical Timeline
Every Nation Exposed
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