Pre-Urban Spirituality?

God the embracer: As a child I was wrapped in the prayers of a grandmother of faith. And a mother and father’s love. Perhaps that is why the world was full of His surrounding love. and the intense curiosity about everything. Even back then I recall the Holy Spirit, as he showed me the inner man of those tall people, their sins, their futures.

The Logic of the Ethical Personality of the Universe: For my 6th 7th, 8th, 9th birthday I asked for a bible, and was given a New Testament and evantually a big complete bible. Only problem is it was written during the time of King James, so kuch remained a mystery. But in it, I found truth, and the presence of God.

The Voice of God: At 13, there came a great struggle of soul. For how was one to know if it were true, if God himself were true and if he were rue, would I follow him with a whole heart. I read – this was before teh internet destroyed the habitual discipline of reading in the populace. I found Frank Morrison’s, Who Moved the Stone? That anchored my certainty as to the truth of the resurrections. Then Josh McDowell’s apologetics on the authority of the scriptures were matched by books- the Story of the Bible was one – that showed their underlying historical veracity based on archeology. Thus the classic Christian and evangelical commitment to the truth of the scriptures as foundational to all. That was not fundamentalism, with its misinterpretation that every little detail of the scriptures must be true, based on Jesus affirmation that not one jot or tittle of the core ten commandments would pass away, then they come up with many literalist views of poetry and the earlier oral myth framework of Genesis 1-12, which is true truth, but as with all oral traditions, is stylized over many centuries, so not all details fit with concepts of truth in modern historiography or literalist fundamentalism, but they do lays out the whole basis of revealed truth in theology.

What was more significant was the Power of the Book. Its’ insights. And in reading the PRESENCE of the Holy Spirit. And over the years its power to speak and break bondages, and confront darkness.

At 14, I began to hang out with the bikey gang at school discovering how to love them into our youth group, At 15 I began to gather the unlovely people for lunch then started my first Christian fellowship. One day we were doing a Bible study on the seats at school, and my classmates gathered and began to debate, ” You don’t believe the BIble do you?”, so I began to preach, the crowd grew, so I climbed on the seat and began to preach some more. The meaning of life in walking in his shoes , obeying his primary command, Declaring the Good News of Freedom

The God who Sees: I faced my first prophetic moments, as the leader of our youth group encouraged my friends to join the dances in the city hall in Dunedin. I had watched the Presbyterian churches emptied that year into the dances then into immorality – it was the season of the Beatles and free love – and out of the church. Dunedin Presbyterians never recovered, to this day. I stood up and prophesied, that if they followed this way they too would be out of the church. This came true. A year later the immorality of the leader of this group was made public. That prophetic life has kept coming as he wills. Speaking against sin, seeing inside leaders, challenging institutional evils. Not an easy gift. But also the delight of calling armies of love into being, Prophesying battles for the soul of places. Calling leader forth. One does not choose the term prophet about oneself. But others know the impact on their lives. This comes from God, not man. Living out the prophetic is what I did in Manila slums – living incarnationally, bringing about transformation poorly, writing it down. That written lived-out prophetic book has called many hundreds to begin ministries in the slums. The prophet as an author.

This leads to strategizing and academics, and works in parallel with these human gifts, but the divine words are of tremendous power compared to those solid conceptual processes.

The Life-giving God: Evangelism expanded under the Navigator trianing at University. Visiting people daily to share the gospel, creating small groups grappling with reality, meaning, and the traumas of growing up, and in the midst finding the mystery of God. Living, alive, life.

The ministry of intercession: The God who Acts as we Ask. I learned to pray without ceasing at school as I studied maths. Multitasking. To this day there is underlying rhythm of prayer as I am about my work. I read ANdew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer nearly daily for ten years. Intercession became central, begining with asking for work every spare day of my university life, to eventually asking for the breaking of bondage on the city of Kolkata – which leaders there testify to. Intensity in prayer at times so critical. Lynton Brocklehurst and I prayed by a fireplae in a student flat for two months for cities and nations – for movements of thousands, for a million. I cannot count as that would be a means of control, but can say I believe the Lord has answered what we asked, despite my follies.

I read hundreds of missionary biographies as as teen, about 5 a week. I found them in Dunedin’s public library, top shelf. Barely read. Just for me. Missiology was derived from story. They birthed faith. Faith in the reality of revival, of the Holy Spirit transforming peoples. Study at Fuller later confirmed what I had learned. A God who speaks in power and that power Multiplies to hundreds at a time. I have seen that again and again, in the Navigator movement in New Zealand, among the Middle class in Manila, in Manila slums, into a tribal people, the Ibanag through discipling a professor… The revival in New Zealand, the falling of the Holy Spirit on groups lead to writing The Spirit of Christ and the Postmodern City where I analyze the impact of revival on a nation.

Beginning Urban Spirituality

Following the God who chooses to Care for the neediest in Incarnation, following Jesus among the poor, the third motif of mission (the first being apostolic mobility, the second, proclamation of good news) became a mark of my work. The call for good seed to go and die among the poor. Many have and suffered and much fruit of transformation of many tens of thousands have resulted. I read St Francis of Asissi so in the Manila slums drafted an outline of the Lifestyle and Values of Servants, which became the basis for a number of apostolic orders among the poor. His promise is revelation of himself as we do that. In this I have found him.

God’s engagement in the Struggle against the Powers: Entering the slum lead to demonic conflict. Preparation for wider citywide demonic conflict in Kolkata. The scriptures speak of the cosmic battle, and the eventual culmination around Jerusalem, likely in our lifetime. And Harry Potter tries to make it like a game. But at every point finding some of those who walked with me deeply flawed and continuing to walk with others today in battles in Kolkata and other cities. Many tried to coopt me.

Such spirituality leads to engagement in confrontations with injustice. Prayer works. Prophetic opposition works, Community Organization works. Political activism works. Social analysis is critical. Academics gives authority. He is the God of Justice. To know him is to do Justice, to confront the Powers, to create alternative realities.

Managing the Fruitfulness of the Spirit of God. I have tried other men’s armour. Wasted a lot years. There is much work to be done in mobilizing an army of trained leaders across the global slums. The key is the creation of a domain of knowledge. This we have done with the MATUL. The 1990’s.

God of Unity: A good wife who can find? Spirituality invokes the three-in-one God. Dwelling in unity. Hard for one to be holy without a wife who keeps one corrected, and walks in parallel, one fit as a companion in ones adventures. Such is my wife Ieda, finest of mothers, a hospital chaplain to the dying, preacher and carer for peoples’ souls.

God the Thinker. It sounds trite but the voice of the immense persona behind the universe is the source of all logic, be it in physics or ethics or social change. Knowing him is to think and study the deepest levels of philosophy and they are story. The mystery of grand myths are what encapsulate cultures. As these are infused with the truths of his voice the stories line up with reality. So we train people to create the stories of the future. The 2000’s. The problem is the academic structures seem unable to deliver the nee domain. We have developed new pedagogy. William Carey International University was set up for innovative education, so together with a good team we are struggling to enable a wave of training for hundreds of urban poor leaders. The academics meshed with the Spirit and of movements he generates around truth from hard study continue to multiply the word of God that ctransfors societies.

God the Global Transformer: The next decade requires multiplying the army of the trained, transforming slum Pentecostalism transforming city structures. There is much to do.