Top Ten Posts of 2013

Let's take the next couple of days to review 2013. First, let's start with my top ten posts of 2013. These range in the most page views and highest original user views. In reading comments and emails from this past year, I understand with great compassion there is a high need to address hush-hush ministry and church topics. Issues that are swept under the rug where people are seeking answers. Please click on the posts to read and comment...

1.) "Struggles of Slavic Third Culture Children": The problem is that the third culture kids, who are now young adults and married folks, face difficulty in letting go of the past and opening doors to fresh opportunities for the future. Many older parents hold strongly to the church traditions from their former life in the USSR. Traditions that today are hindering their third culture kids from expanding their horizons and increasing their potential in ministry.

2.) "Abuse of Slavic-American Women": I have personally spoken with many older Slavic women, younger mothers, single ladies, and even young teen girls about the culture of an abusive household mainly having to do with men taking advantage of the women in their homes. Does this indicate that all Slavic-American families have a stronghold of a macho-domineering attitude?, of course not. However, we cannot let the neglect and pains continue without addressing its core roots and making way for the Holy Spirit to heal and restore. 

3.) "17 Definitive Practices We MUST Crucify": Apostle Paul teaches us in Galatians 5:19-21, a list of 17 practices we must all crucify.

4.)  "Pornography for Women: 50 Shades of Grey": What continues to strike me with shock is how believers continue to approve, distribute, and even not see a problem with this type of writing. We must find ways to consecrate our minds and purify our hearts from the lures of the world. Jesus Christ did not die on the cross so we can continue to live willfully in sin, but He paid the price for our sin and gives us freedom from the stronghold of sin. Our hope is not in a sexual fantasy that degrades our mind, soul, and relationships but in the power of Jesus Christ and His love. 

5.) "Celebrating Leadership Gifts in Women": Somehow we have seen more voices like, "Sit down, your not allowed to preach! Women must be silent in the church! You have no authority to speak! Your task is to be home with the kids! You can only support your husband! Cook, clean, stay home, that is your purpose in life!" As the body of Christ, we must see EVERY member valuable, honorable, and functional for the glory of God. Then the question is raised, Why should we celebrate leadership gifts in women? 

6.) "iAsk: Bogdan Kipko, Pastor and Lead Visionary at Intentional Christianity": I am also passionate about navigating a movement in which predominately Slavic churches in America would in a healthy way transition to be more effective for the gospel by creating additional English venues so that communities who don't speak Russian would also be reached with the gospel. I want to see the church fulfill their calling in the United States and one of the ways that will happen is when the Slavic church will cease to be an isolationist community, bound by culture and tradition and would break out of the mold to evangelize and reach the lost people in their midst that speak a language other than one of the Slavic dialects.

7.) "12 Topics the Church Is NOT Talking About": I was blessed to be at a men's conference called Barnabas Renewal in Atlanta, GA where 25 ministers under the age of 40 came together for prayer, renewal, accountability, and building relationships. Men from all over the country came and even one youth pastor from Vancouver, Canada. God was encouraging each of us to hear His voice and be led by the voice of the Holy Spirit. One topic we discussed was: What is the Church (Body of Christ) either locally or around the world NOT talking about. Here are 12 things we must start addressing in 2014....  

8.) "The Internal Enemy of Women: Comparison": Most women do not struggle with looking lustfully upon men's bodies. The way the eye of women usually works has largely to do with COMPARISONS. 

9.) "Preparing For Persecution": Fellow Christians, we are being prepared by the Holy Spirit to endure much persecution in the years to come in this country. Like it or not it’s coming. 

10.) "Consequences In Dealing With Sexual Sin Publicly": One verse that keeps slipping the minds of many men is found in Numbers 32:23, "But if ye will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out." In our age of hyper-grace and distant personal accountability we have discovered the true meaning of this verse with the epidemic tsunami of moral failures one after another from mega-church preachers to local 50 member congregations not only here in America but around the world.

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iAsk: Natasha Kosachevich, Spiritual Counselor, Questions on Women in Ministry

 Every Monday I will be posting new interviews with Christian leaders to find in-depth counsel on issues such as ministry, family, careers, politics, finance, and theology. Today's in-depth interview is with spiritual counselor Natasha Kosachevich from California. Let's begin...

Natasha Kosachevich

Paul: First, can you tell us who you are, what you do, and what is your greatest passion in life? Our readers will be interested in hearing your story.

Natasha: I am just a simple daughter of the King of Kings J. I love Jesus and my passion is to introduce as many people as possible to Him and to encourage those that have already met Him to get to know Him better, fall in love with Him deeper and trust Him completely.  I love to share anything and everything that I learn from Him with those who will listen.  I love sharing with young people, teenagers, youth, young adults, and couples about Gods order of things.  He is the ultimate Designer of Life and He knows best how it should be handled.  Besides the fun subjects of faith, love and relationships I also cover some of the not-so common ones of abuse, sexuality, addictions and emotional healing. 
        

Paul: 1. 2013 is coming to a close and many events have taken place around the world, too many to list. For you personally, what world events in 2013 have impacted you the most and why?

Natasha: I spent most of 2013 in New York City, and thus the Connecticut School shooting was something that was close to me in proximity, and heart.  The lives of the innocent is something that is very precious to me.  Seeing children perish before truly living is devastating.  This event hit very close to another passion of mine which is the truth about abortion in our country and worldwide.  Seeing the nation mourn the lives of kids in one classroom but ignore the fact that close to 4000 pregnancies are terminated DAILY in the US alone is pretty overwhelming.

Another event that wasn’t really worldwide, but reminded me of Gods control was the flooding of the Dinuba River in Europe.  I was IN Eastern Europe at the time, and left the city of Budapest for a month, and during THAT specific month the river flooded.  When I returned and walked alongside the riverbank I was fascinated that just during the weeks I was gone the river flooded and covered the very sidewalks that I was now walking on.  The frailty of our life and Gods complete control over nature was very vivid to me.  I was reminded that no advancement in technology or modernization can stand against the mighty hand of the Creator.
    

Paul: 2. As you know, I co-labor alongside Lee Grady with the Mordecai Project to confront the abuse and oppression of women worldwide. Has the Slavic church as a whole suppressed the leadership gifts of women? Also, do you feel Slavic Christian women should be given greater measures of responsibility and authority in spiritual work like church ministry?

Natasha: Traditionally, I believe the Slavic church has disrespected the gifting that women can bring to serving people better.  I think partially it’s due to lack of resources and biblical education in the past years of the former Soviet Union and part of it is overlooking the way Jesus treated women and taking verses out of context or assuming that His commandments of going and making disciples concern men only.

I think wisdom and discernment must be applied in any church ministry.  But I Do believe that women were created in the image and likeness of God, and omitting their importance in the body of Christ is overlooking a very important aspect of God.

Recently, I was reading the gospel of John and marveled again at the fact that Jesus Himself, after resurrection showed Himself first to a woman and commissioned her to ‘go and tell,’ and she was in turn the first witness of His resurrection to the disciples. (John 20:10-18)  

Natasha sharing Jesus

Paul: 3. What message of encouragement and inspiration would you share with women who have been abused emotionally, physically, or sexually in Christian homes? If women are oppressed at home, what hope can they look for?

Natasha: Get to know the Lord Jesus who took all the pain and the shame to the cross.  He left heaven to pursue the brokenhearted, comfort those who mourn and restore all that was lost.  His LOVE covers ALL sins, those that you committed and those that were committed against you.  He is the Only One who can make old things new and restore you to His original design. (Isaiah 61)    

Paul: 4. From your travels around the world, what have you noticed the Lord speaking to the body of Christ?

Natasha: “Get Ready - Jesus is Coming!”

The Bride of Christ, remember your first love. Purify yourself. Get your ‘dress’ in order.  Get your heart focused on the Groom! 

Paul: 5. Christmas time is around the corner, where and with whom do you plan on celebrating the holiday?

Natasha: For the past 3 years I have been either out of the country or out of the states for the holidays, so I am looking forward to spending the time with my family in California this year, and listening to a lot of Christmas music, which I love. 
 

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Joel Engle, Worship Leader, Interview

This week I found a great Q & A interview with Christian recording artist, Joel Engle. I would like share it with our online community. Thanks to Kim Jones' efforts in conducting this interview.

Joel Engle

Joel Engle is a nationally-recognized worship communicator. God has given Joel a broad range of gifts to communicate worship as a musician, songwriter, author, speaker and worship leader. As a musician and songwriter, Joel has published more than 40 original songs, created SPIN360 (a worship resource that goes out to more than 4000 churches each quarter), and has had his songs recorded by SONICFLOOd, Charles Billingsley and Point of Grace. As an author, he has written material for the Surrender Conference and co-authored Glorify, a devotional through the Gospel of John. Joel is a dynamic speaker and that gives him the ability to communicate effectively from God's Word about worship. Churches bring in Joel every year to share his testimony, teach workshops on worship, and speak to the body. Joel is both a student and a teacher of God's Word to thousands of people each year. Finally, as a worship leader, Joel has reached hundreds of thousands of people. He has led worship with Dawson McAllister Conferences, Student Life Camps, Youth Evangelism Conferences, and much more. The bottom line is that no matter what you may know about Joel, one thing is for certain, God has set him apart to communicate God's heart of worship.

 

Kim: You know, you're nationally recognized as a worship leader and communicator. What was it that made you feel like your church should be bigger than the church down the street?
Joel: You know, for me it's been a spiritual evolution, if you will. That's exactly how I started. I started out as a college student leading praise and worship at my school. And we did a thing every day ... In Acts, chapter two, it talks about how the disciples met every day at 3 o'clock to pray. So we did that at school every day for a whole semester during my junior year. We met every day at 3 o'clock to pray and to worship God. God just did this huge work. We started with just three people and we ended up having about 200 people every day, jam packed into this little chapel. There was no marketing or posters. People just came. Through that I winded up traveling a lot to different churches doing concerts and leading music. It just kind of evolved and I started taking the music even more serious and my writing (songwriting) more serious. Then I wound up doing a project with a very well-known Christian worship artist and the next thing you know, I'm traveling even more. I don't think you ever really set out to do great things. What happens is that the passion that you have for what you do at the moment begins to develop and it kind of catches on fire. I think that's what happened. One of the bad parts though is that you wind up becoming busy or successful, or whatever you want to call it, and you get more demands and then you wind up kind of resting on that. You forget where you come from. For me, the last couple of years has been getting back to what God started doing in me 15 years ago.

Kim: How do you stay grounded when you reach that pinnacle? Especially after reaching the level of success that you have?
Joel: I think first of all ... you know Bill Murray, the actor and comedian, he made a statement that I read that said "When somebody becomes a celebrity, they're a jerk for a year and a half to two years no matter what". I think that there's a lot of truth in that. For me, I kind of lost being grounded for a while and I got the big-head. I knew how to cover it up though. Instead of bragging I was just like "The Lord did this" ... but I was telling ten thousand people! Spiritualized self-promotion. But what happened is that because I'm involved in my local church and I don't mean that I just show up on Sunday morning, I'm talking about deep relationships with people ... you know, you can't live like that for long without getting your head knocked off in love. I have accountability in my life from my pastor to the guys in my Bible study that meets on Monday night (there's six of us that meet). And I've got all kinds of friends in the ministry that really know me and speak freely into my life, whether I want to hear it or not. It so happens that because I'm a worship leader, and worship leaders don't really know each other because we get paired with speakers, all of my best friends are preachers. So if I get too far off, there's a sermon getting ready to hit me. Plus I have a wife who is a Godly woman and a family who loves me and they're all Christians and they'll all speak into my life. I think you have to be surrounded by people who love you and know you for who you are. Then you have to desire that accountability. It's doesn't just happen naturally. You have to be intentional about it. I have been going to my church for about four years now. I went to church on Sunday's, but I really wasn't plugged in for about six years with my travel ministry. I was just so busy traveling that I'd come in, just sit in the congregation and then leave. I wasn't really experiencing Biblical fellowship. So I was so dried up spiritually and I was craving those relationships. I prayed and God led me to my church and my life was changed. The people in my church could care less what happens in my quote-unquote ministry career. They're more interested in how I treat my wife and my children. It's a neat thing. I'm very blessed.

Kim: I read in your bio that in 1997 you and your wife started SPIN360. Wow! For a resource like that to be used world-wide in thousands of churches is just awesome.
Joel: I tell you, it is the most amazing thing. To be honest with you, I can't believe it at all. I mean, we are not business people at all. The whole thing developed because I'd go somewhere to sing, before the big worship wave really hit, like at a camp or something and everybody would run up to me after the thing and want me to write up the chorus to the song that I had just done. I'd be like man, sure ... But after about the third time it was driving me nuts! I couldn't take it anymore. They would be asking me for tracks to take back to their churches to sing the songs. A buddy of mine said you ought to start a company. It was like "whoa ... ding"! So we just started out with this really cheesy mailer for the national network of ministers that we made up. Immediately we got about 150 people signed up. We're were like "We don't have enough music! These people paid for music! We better go make some more music". So we made the music and it's just grown every year. It's so weird to hear. I'll go play at a church and some 25 year old kid will come up to me and say "I learned to play music from SPIN". Over and over again. Or a praise band will come up to me and say "Yeah man, we learned how to play our instruments through SPIN when we were in high school". That just blows me away. I think right now that there are about 150,000 students every week using SPIN. It's crazy. We're excited though.

Kim: I frequently see people and organizations that attack Christian music that is not from a hymnal. You get out there and watch this music touch people. So what is your response to the people that attack music that glorifies God but with a different beat?
Joel: I think that music is a language. I call it emotions put to sound, but it's a language. For me, if I walked into a Gaither Homecoming shoot, even though I have so much respect for Bill Gaither, I probably wouldn't get into the music because that's just not my language. I speak a more pop/rock language. That's what I respond to. But I love Bill Gaither because his songs are so God centered. Because He Lives ... you know, all of those great songs that I grew up singing. So while a lot of people call contemporary music "from the devil", they don't realize that a lot of the hymns were taken were taken from secular tunes. Martin Luther took music that was worldly and put it with Christian lyrics. There's nothing new about doing that. What makes a drum any more worldly than a piano or an organ? Why is it that piano and organ are acceptable but drums and bass aren't? It doesn't make sense. I think what happens is that we miss the heart of worship. The heart of worship has nothing to do with music. I see such an amazing response everywhere I go. Not just teenagers, but people of all ages. I did a radio show a couple of weeks ago and they were talking about the "worship wars". Basically they were talking about contemporary music versus traditional. I said that number one, there is no such thing as a worship war. The only war that we have is the Kingdom of Heaven versus the kingdom of hell. You know? It's a style war ... not a worship war. I think that we need to get past the style and look to the content. I'm really into more of an edgier sound, but to me it's about the lyrics. The music has to be God-honoring. Songs are made to touch people's lives and to bring glory to God. For me, I wouldn't be sitting in this chair, having this interview with you if it weren't for bands like Whiteheart and Petra ... the music of the 80's and early 90's ... dcTalk, Steven Curtis Chapman. All of these wonderful Christian artists. I remember going to a Mylon LeFevre and the Imperials concert and my mom had just died and my grandpa had just died. I remember talking to one of the singers in the Imperials. There were like 10,000 people there, but they came out into the audience and talked to everyone after the show. Paul Smith, the lead singer then, talked to me about what was going on in my life. He prayed over me. I ran as fast as I could go get to that CD table. I played that cassette over and over and over again. God used those songs and that conversation to touch my life. I would have never had that experience if I hadn't gotten into the songs through the radio. I think that it's sad when people attack stuff based on preference. If there is a Christian artist out there promoting Hinduism or Buddhism, that's worth fighting over, but preference and style are not things worth fighting over. Music has touched me in ways that I can't express. It's touched my soul. I love to read and to hear great preaching, but there's something about music that sticks with you more than anything. I'm privileged to be able to do this for a living. It doesn't matter if it's a small audience or 10,000 people. Everytime I get to stand there behind my piano, with my band, and lift up a song to the Lord, I just can't believe it. It's a dream come true. It's a lot of hard work and sacrifice sometimes, but I wouldn't change it.

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