RAINMAKERS

  I was rummaging through some photos the other day and came across several of my father during times of leading worship. I have had the privilege of ministering with my father since I was around 12-13, when I started playing piano in the worship team of our church. I am now 51 years of age, so that is a 38-39 year partnership. That's how long I have been in public Church ministry. Which is a crazy long time!  Anyway, as we prepare this week for our next Gathering of Rainmakers , the preparation is not about getting songs right, it's about being in the presence of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. My father taught me an important truth when it comes to worship leading,  "You cannot take people where you haven't been yourself" Meaning, if you do not know how to worship in a way that attracts the presence of God, then you cannot lead a congregation to that place. Today, we have many song-leaders but few worship leaders. There is a world of difference. My father taugh...

  Back in May, a group of us were praying. We were seeking God for the new "wineskin" (a symbol of the current "framework" for what God is doing).  Where did God want us to be, and what would be the "structure" of that church, ministry, or whatever? We then started to feel that we were being overly concerned with the "wineskin" over the "wine". We felt the Lord saying, "Forget the wineskin. I want the new wine of my Spirit to flow freely over Wales. Just let it flow and wash away all religiousity. Let it wash away all preconceived ideas of how I want to move. Just let the new wine flow!" We prayed, in response,  "Lord, we burn all of our wineskins. We declare that there is no wineskin!!  Let your new wine flow over Wales!" I have thought much about this over the past six months since that prayer meeting. Sometimes in our attempt to keep things Biblical we can miss what the Spirit is saying. That's a hard thing to...

  Why do we place such importance on the need for God's Presence in our gatherings? I have a friend who runs the largest ministry in the country where he lives. I was once invited to preach at their mid-week prayer meeting, where approximately 250,000 people attend. If I had gone to preach at that time, it would've been the largest crowd I've ever spoken to. WOW! 250,000 people gathering for a mid-week prayer meeting!!! When he and his wife stayed with me in St Louis, I wasn't fully aware of the scale of his ministry at that time, which was good. Being clueless put me at ease. However, when they came to stay I had to arrange some flights for them as they had some important lunch meetings to make with some of the "biggest" minister names I had heard of. I then Google'd to see if he was legit, and he was!  When it was time for him to speak at our church on a Saturday night, I had totally underestimated the kinds of crowds he was used of preaching to. 100,000...