God wants His church back

John Wimber

The church that I attend is part of the Vineyard movement. One of the founding leaders of the Vineyard was John Wimber, who was inspired by God telling him, "I want my church back."

Todd Hunter shared a little more background on that story on his blog:

Do you know what made John Wimber so ruthlessly unmovable on the one hand yet so winsome on the other? After years of traveling around the country as a church growth consultant with Fuller Seminary, after years of consulting with denominational hierarchies and institutions, John found over and over again that the church was hardly ever in God’s hands. It was in the hands of bishops. It was in the hands of pastors, deacons, elders, boards. It was in the hands of almost anybody but God. John just simply said, 'I’m going to go home and I’m going to start a church in which the Holy Spirit is the leader.' In a 'Godward' church, in the church I would build, the Holy Spirit would be the leader, the administrator, and the architect. You may remember that John Wimber’s very first renewal messages in the early '80s in South Africa and England were entitled, 'I Want My Church Back.' That was his way of reflecting on what he had seen through his years of consulting. I don’t know how many times I heard both John and Carol (John's wife) say, privately and publicly, 'When does God get what he wants out of his church?' This is a driving question for me: How can I do everything possible to see that God gets what he wants out of the Vineyard?

It's inspiring, indeed.

Meet the beautiful outlaw

On Oct. 12, John Eldredge releases his new book, "Beautiful Outlaw:  Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus."

It sounds like in his new book, Eldredge is focusing on aspects of Jesus that perhaps we have not considered -- his "beautiful, scandalous, utterly compelling personality."

Eldredge recently shared in a letter how Jesus spoke to him while writing "Beautiful Outlaw":

Back in January, when I was writing the book, Jesus spoke to me Isaiah 63:4: 'For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redemption has come.' I sensed that at this time, in this context, the 'year of his redemption' means the redeeming of how people see Jesus and what they know him to be like. Wouldn't that be awesome!!??

In "Beautiful Outlaw," Eldredge looks at Jesus' humanity, playfulness, extravagant generosity, fierce intention, cunning and humility. I'm looking forward to reading it and getting closer to Jesus.