Dear prayer warriors and friends,
Please pray for me as I goto Singapore from Aug 26-Sept 6 (11 days)
At the spur of the moment the Lord has led me to go on this mission
trip and helped me raise $1000 dollars in a week. I'm still a little short, but
I know God will provide.
I sense the Lord has me there for a very strategic purpose. So pray for the
following.
1. I will be meeting with IMB (International Missions Board) for Southern Baptist
with the CPM (Church Planting Movement) pioneer this is an incredible
meeting as he is the leading CPM trainer in the world right now for this recent
phenomena of "CPM" breaking out in the 10/40 window. Pray that I will receive a
supernatural strategic download for the CPM we are starting among young
adults in San Jose.
2. I will be meeting with 5 of the largest churches youth departments to learn more
about their youth ministries (especially G12 & cell structures) Pray for divine relationships,
appointments and prophetic impartation to be released upon me as I meet w/ these
leaders. (Singapore has one of the strongest christian communities in the world w/ some
of the largest and strongest cell based churches worldwide)
3. I also feel very strongly that I am to share about "The Call" and what God is doing among
young people in prayer/fasting in America. Pray the Lord would open a door for the churches
in Singapore to corporately invite "THE CALL" to happen in Singapore and that the young people
there will be stirred to new radical lifestyles of prayer and fasting. (pray also i will be able to share
about the Call at many youth gatherings)
4. I will be sharing my testimony at different churches, cell groups and God has opened up a
door with Singapore Youth for Christ (one of the strongest chapters in the world) for me
to possibly minister, learn & preach and share God's vision for a worldwide youth revival.
5. I will also be sharing the vision of the Youth Center and Soul House Church Planting Vision
to hopefully raise financial resources from overseas to support God's youth vision in San Jose.
I will be meeting with a very important CEO of Business Mens Fellowship to learn from him
and network.
6. Pray for unexpected divine appointments, divine relationships, divine open doors for ministry,
double favor in all my meetings and God will give me favor with every church and ministry
organization and marketplace ministers. Singapore is also one of the strongest prototype countries
experiencing a level of "countrywide" revival and transformation, may I learn from their unity,
culture and strategy.
7. Lastly, pray I will have some time to really experience God in relaxation, fun and deeper intimacy.
Fresh vision and inspiration when I come back...I believe there is a piece of the puzzle still missing
from our vision in San Jose that the Lord will show me in Singapore! God's will be done! amen!
8. oh yeah. i may be staying with a MUSLIM man during my stay. Pray God opens a door for him
to be saved!!! oh yeah..and I'll probably get to visit the YWAM base and share about how
to relevantly work with postmodern youth in india/nepal...crazy!
Thank you all for praying for me!!!!! Who knows exactly why God has me going to Singapore..
but I'll find out when I get there! Lord I'm open to do whatever you want me to do or experience
when I'm there..thy will be done! Cause with God life is always a crazy ADVENTURE!!! our job is
to just be obedient and follow His lead!!! wohoOOohhoOOO!
Ps. sunday I will be speaking at the "Transformations Camp" in Los Angeles. There will be over 500
youth there so pray God will use me powefully to preach the Gospel with Apostolic passion and
power, many youth will be saved and stirred to stand up and fight for Jesus in this generation! AMEN!
.....i just want to say thank you God..cause its been 2 years since i've been able to go overseas
back on a mission trip and God knows my desires and He granted it to me. Even with year
round school, He blessed me to audit my current class so I could get some time off!!! Is God
an awesome ABBA or whut?
a sad day. but a good day.
the Lords will was done. ;oD
well..it looks like it is God's will for me to goto SINGAPORE!!!
woohOOO! geez..i've been itching to go on a mission trip for
2 years!!! I've had year round school for the last year and
half which has inhibited me from going overseas. But, I was
able to audit the course on "Romans" cuz i took it before so
right now i have 5 weeks off of school :OD woohooo!
so this Singapore trip is waaay random, but I'm beginning to
see why God wants me to go. I was invited by a couple after
speaking at an event in Oakland to visit their church in Singapore.
Well, some of you may know God has really been revealing to me
more revelation on "CPM" or church planting movements around
the world and last week I went to this workshop and met one of
the pioneers who planted over 10,000 churches in Nth India in only
8-10 years!!! He is now going to mentor me to attempt to start
a CPM among young adults in the Bay Area..he then tells me the
number one CPM trainer and equipping program is located in Singapore
headed by a man named "Bill Smith" ....haha! Crazy..so I randomly emailed
this website i found linked with his name and he emailed me back and
were going to hook up for coffee in Singapore!!!!
God also has been hooking me up crazy! For years I've studied how Singapore
(apart from a rich revival history with revivalist "John Sung" who won hundreds
of thousands of souls starting in Singapore in the early 1900's) ..to currently
how SIngapore has some of the largest mega-cell churches in the world! I'll
get to meet w/ the youth pastors of 3 of the largest churches there and study
their cell models...then haha..i got hooked up with "Singapore Youth for Christ"
which has been one of the strongest YFC chapters in the world for the last decade
(my exec director use to always rave about them) to visit their ministry center.
hmm...i dunno...but I'm sure God will reveal more when I get there why He wants
me out there. Can you believe God provided my plane ticket and everything in
less than a week???? Crazy..i told God yesterday if i don't get $500 more for the
trip I'll take it as a sign I'm not going. An hour later I'm at the YFC office and my boss
says I want to pay you early for your speaking engagement in March 2004 and hands
me a check for $500!!!!!! NUTZ MAN!!!! GOD IS GOOOOOOOOD!!!! wohOOhhhOOO!
lastly...hrm....i got a sense i'll be able to share about "the call" at some of the meetings
maybe God wants to do an International Call in Singapore.."THE CALL SINGAPORE"
who knows...we'll see.. I'm leaving Sunday for LA /Ontario to speak at the
Transformations Camp..yo 2 all my LA & SD homIez come on down b-tween "sun-mon"
i'll be there!!! I'll be in Singapore Aug 26-Sept 6 keep me in prayer for open doors
to learn and preach the gospel with fire!!! i will have email access so email me for
anything urgent! GOD BLESS BLESS BLESS!!! yea yea...Word emUP!
i finally got to see "Bruce Almighty" tonite.
only a $1.50 on tuesday nites at AMC Cinema
Saver! ..it was a really really good movie.
made me think alot. ;oP
man..its been a long weekend already. but a good one.
God never ceases to amaze me. Its so cool when God
pays attention even to the little things in life. "He hooked
me up w/ these cool trendy "green" shoes." Well, I've
been needing some new shoes for over month cause I've
been growing this nasty corn on the bottom of my foot,
so I realized my shoes were not fitting anymore. So for a while,
i've been looking at those new "trendy" sneaker types everyone's
got..wanting some green ones, but since i never get the chance
due to busyness i haven't been able to shop for some.
Well, earlier this week I get an IM from my buddy Xanthy and
she tells me her mom has some "Green shoes" for me she got
for her older bro, but he couldn't fit em. She said they were "ugly"
but last night at a party she showed em to me and they were
exactly the same kind, type, color i had desired and envisioned...
God hooked me up again!!! The "little things" is God an awesome
Abba or whut???
Another praise, for some reason before the party I went to last night
the HOly Spirit wouldn't let me go into the party just yet. He led me to
pray in the spirit and walk around the block for a good half and hour,
i didn't know what i was interceding for. I had no clue that time of intercession
was because last night i ended up praying for a demonized brother
who was delivered by God's grace. It's so crazy how i wasn't even planning
to goto this worship event after the party, but that day my other phone got
a call, but i couldn't recognize the number. I called back and it was my friends
cell who was performing at this praise night. I took it as a sign God was telling
me stop by this praise event.
When i got there I found a brother who was tormented by an evil spirit. To
make a long story short, the Holy Spirit protected me from getting hurt, it
must have been God's angels sent to protect me. By HIs grace this brother
was totally delivered..it was sooo AMAZING he was crying not because of
torment after the deliverance, but with tears of JOY!!! IT IS THE POWER OF
THE CROSS, THE SHED BLOOD OF JESUS, THE GOOD NEWS that set Him FREE!!
My heart cried with joy as i saw all his friends and family laying hands on him,
praying and praising God for the deliverance and seeing their loved one finally
set free. God showed me again the REALITY of His presence & just how real
this war against the kingdom of darkness and light is. How wonderful & a
privilege it is to be a carrier of this MESSAGE OF HOPE, TRUTH and PEACE!!!
JESUS CHRIST IS THE ANSWER TO ALL OF LIFES PROBLEMS!!! HE IS THE ONLY
ONE WHO CAN SET ANYONE FREE FROM BONDAGE!! I REALIZED LAST NIGHT
HOW FORTUNATE I AM TO KNOW JESUS AND TO MINISTER HIS GRACE TO A BROKEN
GENERATION SO DESPERATELY IN NEED OF THIS GOSPEL WE CHRIST FOLLOWERS
HAVE...LORD....LET ME NEVER LOSE SIGHT OF THE BATTLE AND THE SIMPLICITY
OF THE GOSPEL AND THE POWER IT HAS TO TRANSFORM LIVES!!!
today was a whole other God experience..i love my team mates at church..
alex, john, ashley, amie, sergio, kevin, eddie, tamika, ken, susan, laura,
aaron, cathy, erica, sean, timmy...man..we totally experienced God today..
it was soooo awesome to see us not only bond, get closer to God out in the
beautiful woods...smores on the beach...and wow...that prophetic exercise
to close our eyes and pray for someone we didn't know & God giving us exact
words for the person...GOD IS REAL!!!! and i'm pooped..a full day of church
ahead...good nite. :OD
okay..so I'm addicted to "Tostitos Santa Fe" chips
w/ Paste Picante mild sauce. How do I know? Its midnight,
I'm in my office eating chips n' salsa for dinner :OP btw/
i also drove out of my way from sth san jose to downtown
last friday just to have sum more tostitos n' salsa...man...
i think i'm addicted. thank you God for this magnificent
combination of salsa n' chips....amen.
ugh...went to the benjamin gate concert tonite.
it was really dope..only i got sick, i have a slight
headache right now...kinda dizzy ..must have been
from jumpn around and the lights in my face. i must
be getting old..can't take this wildness nemore. :OP
i really need to get some rest...good nite. zzzzzzzzz..
A VISION OF REVIVAL FOR THE YOUTH OF SAN JOSE...
While I was in the mountains praying and fasting
I didn't plan this, but I was led to write out a
journal of important events in my life that have
led me up to where I am right now. That is, a
strong conviction God is birthing a new wineskin
for the emerging generation and city transformation
for the city I live in...call me crazy...but its worth a shot
LET THE FREEDOM BELLS RING...
LET THE REVOLUTION COME...
IN THE NAME OF JESUS...
AMEN.
Soul House Ministries
The Story Behind the Dream:
For over 4 years the Lord has given me a vision of revival among the youth of San Jose. The vision was given to me during my freshmen year at San Jose State University. This happened after I had received a rude awakening in my philosophy 101 class. The professor asked the class of one hundred plus students, “Who hear believes in a loving God?” To my surprise, in that room of one hundred plus students, I was the only one to raise my hand. God began to break my heart that day for my generation. My heart broke again and again as I realized the ignorance of my generation towards the Good News of Jesus Christ. This generation may have heard of Christ, but the majority has not experienced His love in a real intimate way. To them, Christianity is just another religion.
This fateful event affected me so much it forced me to my knees in prayer. During my freshmen year in college I locked myself in my room everyday for 2-6 hours crying out to God for my generation. It was during this time the Lord gave me a 2-week cinematic vision of a field full of young people crying out to God to the point where I couldn’t see to the end of the multitude. As a new Christian I didn’t know what this meant, but I quickly told my youth pastor that I sensed God was about save a lot of young people. He and others whom I shared the vision with thought I was crazy. It wasn’t until I shared the vision with a friend named Josh that he responded saying, “Oh you mean revival?” I asked him, “What’s revival?” He responded, “its when a lot of people get saved!” This passion for revival has been the heartbeat of my life since that vision experience.
During those freshmen college days of waiting on God and intercession in my room, God showed me other visions. In one of these visions I saw myself on a stage praying in a sports stadium with thousands of youth surrounding me. At this point, I was convinced by the reoccurring visions that God was about to bring a mighty revolution to the youth of America. “And it shall come to pass afterward, That I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.” Joel 2:28
While I was receiving all these visions of a mass youth revival in prayer, I also heard a clear word in my spirit regarding particularly the youth of San Jose. The Holy Spirit spoke to me saying, “A great revival will start with the young people in San Jose!” I thought I was hearing things because I would assume revival would probably begin in a place like Los Angeles or New York City. I asked the Lord to confirm the word to me through some exterior sign. A week later, I was led to attend by myself a world prayer conference at a local church.
The second night Cindy Jacobs a prophetess was scheduled to speak. It just so happened she was scheduled to speak the day after the Columbine High School shootings. Coincidentally, she lives in Colorado and flew into San Jose for the conference from there. As she got up to speak her words were something as follows, “As my airplane began to land from Colorado into San Jose I sensed a darkness over this city I can’t explain, but I have been given a word to the churches in San Jose that if you do not pray and fast for the young people of this city, there will be bloodshed that will make what happened at Columbine look like nothing!” The fear of the Lord immediately struck the auditorium and everyone in the conference began to cry out in repentance and intercession. Cindy continued to prophesy and gave an interesting word saying, “And revival will start with the young people in San Jose.” That word of prophecy was all the confirmation I needed to believe God for revival in the Silicon Valley.
Ten days after Cindy Jacobs gave that prophetic word of warning to the churches in San Jose, the host pastor of the conference Dick Bernal called a citywide day of prayer for the young people. Supernaturally, within ten days after the conference over 16,000 people gathered for “Pray the Bay” at the San Jose Sharks Arena praying for the youth of the city. It was not by accident months later a classmate of mine from high school was caught by police only 14 hours before bombing the entire local De Anza community college of 22,000 plus students. Surely, it was the prayer of the saints that saved that college from bloodshed.
It also was not by accident, I was at the actual Longs drugstore the very night when the police arrested the felon. The following day after the attempted massacre God opened up a door for me to share my testimony to hundreds of students on the De Anza campus. As I shared the gospel students were responding in tears. I understood at that moment why God would choose to start a revival among San Jose’s youth. One reason is they were not only responsive, but that one crowd represented young people from every nation of the world. What if God did bring a revival to the youth of San Jose? It would be a perfect model of the nations worshipping Jesus, just as it will be in heaven one day. The Silicon Valley is one of the most diverse ethnically populated areas in the U.S. Think of the great potential for Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, African etc. students who could be saved and then called to bring the Gospel back to their ethnic homelands? If San Jose was saved, the whole world could be saved!
For the next two years I continued in hot pursuit of the vision God had given me, sharing it everywhere I went. I helped start an inner city outreach in east San Jose that ministered to hundreds of urban youth, it later evolved into a radio and TV program. Through the radio/TV ministry with Youth for Christ I was able to promote the TV show by doing creative lunchtime evangelistic hip-hop rallies at over 25 public high schools and 15,000 plus students. Our rally team was able to prayer walk every high school partnering with the Christian clubs on campus. I knew God was only using the rallies to begin to sow seeds of prayer that would later birth revival.
After ministering years with this vision of revival, but not seeing much fruit among the young people being revived, I grew tired and was ready to give up on the vision. It was then I was invited to a local church called “The River” in Sunnyvale Ca. At the point of burn out from youth ministry I was brought to a pre-service prayer gathering of intercessors. One particular intercessor prayed, “I thank you Lord for the prophetic word that as the River moves its location to San Jose State there will be a revival that will start among the students of the university.” My heart leaped for joy as I heard these words, I realized I was not alone in the city seeking revival among the youth.
Interestingly, the intercessors and pastors in the room began to pray and pronounce words of encouragement over me. I had no clue many of the staff and intercessors of “The River” had been praying for me specifically for months. They were praying for me because they had caught wind of the outreaches I was doing at the different high schools. The River heard about one rally in particular at San Jose State where over twenty college students stood up to commit their lives to Jesus. God was strategically connecting me to join this local congregation to together reach the students at SJSU. Through a season of prayer, counsel and confirmation the Lord made it clear I was to join this church in its war move to downtown San Jose.
That same summer the Lord led me to an event called “The Call NYC.” I had heard about this prayer and fasting movement that gathered over 450,000 young people to pray in Washington D.C. in September 2000. Only, I had never attended one of these massive prayer gatherings. By God’s choice He provided me a plane ticket to New York City. On June 29, 2002 I found myself praying and fasting with over 85,000 young people on a field in Flushing Meadows Park for God to revive the youth of my generation. It wasn’t until I was on my plane ride back to San Jose the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart saying, “Jason the vision I gave you four years ago has just come to pass.” In amazement, I realized the vision I had of thousands of youth crying out to God on a field to the point where I couldn’t see to the end of the multitude had just become a reality.
Six months later I received a magazine called KAIROS in the mail and on the front cover was an exact picture of the vision I had received four years before of a field full of youth praying to God with the title “The Call NYC A Day in History.” As I looked closer to the picture on the front cover of this magazine, I realized I was pictured on the front cover with my hand raised to God crying out for revival. God has a sense of humor. It was His way of confirming to me indeed the visions of youth revival in America He had given to me years before were beginning to rumble.
In the summer of 2002 I also had the opportunity to visit the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. For over 4 years now there has been 24/7 worship and intercession going on non-stop in this city. Over 30 full time worship teams and 200 self-supported intercessory missionaries take two-hour shifts around the clock worshiping and interceding for the nations. This ministry is modeled after Revelation 5:8 “Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song.” The harp represents worship and the bowls the intercession of the saints. During the time of the “Tabernacle of David” (1 Chronicles 13-16) King David ordained over sixteen ministries to worship, praise and bring thanksgiving before the ark of the covenant 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This marked a revolutionary departure from the old system of law separating God from His people. For up to the time of the “Tabernacle of David” only the high priest could enter the holy of holies. Now all people could enjoy intimacy with God’s presence. (SFL Bible)
What I realized through visiting the IHOP in Kansas was God indeed was restoring prayer, worship and intimacy with Him to be given first place in His end time church. For it is prophesied concerning the end time church in Isaiah 56:7 “Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” God is calling His church back to intimacy with Him, in order for the church to effectively accomplish things for Him. For lovers always outwork workers. I had experienced this truth first hand during my 4 years of youth ministry by ignorantly putting the Great Commission before the Great Commandment. This resulted in me ending up feeling burnt out and wanting to quit ministry several times. During this visit to KC my heart was convinced the end time missions movement would have to be empowered by 24 hour houses of prayer in every city opening the heavens for more effective evangelism, church planting and sustained revival. God is coming back for a lovesick bride who is joyful in His house of prayer.
On my third visit to Kansas City on Dec 31, 2002 God confirmed my apostolic call to plant young adult churches for the emerging generation. For some reason, early on in my Christian walk I prayed daily God would use me like the apostle Paul by giving me the apostolic gift. I never really knew what it meant to be used in the “apostolic” but I prayed it anyway not knowing why. I began to understand later a modern day apostle is one who plants and oversees a network of churches. Before I visited Kansas City One Thing/Call KC conference for the third time, I asked God to confirm my apostolic call by having 3 apostles pray and release an apostolic mantle over me. Without me asking apostles Bob Weiner, Larry Tomzack and Che Ahn all prayed and laid hands on me at random times, not knowing who I was, for God to use me as an apostle.
The most interesting confirmation was near the end of the Call KC, Mike Bickle the founder of the International House of Prayer gave a call for young people who felt God was calling them to be an apostle to plant and oversee networks of churches to stand up, not be shy and receive prayer. I was at the front of the stage and reluctantly stood up fearing I would be looked upon as proud for desiring to be an apostle at my young age. Well, God knew this desire was not from myself, but put there by Him. I looked up at the stage to receive prayer and saw prophet Lou Engle run across the stage directly to me laying his hands on me praying, “Lord release the apostolic mantle on Jason and use him to plant thousands of churches all over the San Francisco Bay Area.” I didn’t know it yet, but God at that time was beginning to seed in my heart the vision to raise up new churches for the emerging generation.
While in Kansas City I had also received a phone call from my Christian college professor in California asking me to consider being the executive director of a new Christian youth foundation. He explained to me a Korean businessman started a new technology company (Vineyard Technologies Inc.,) in Pleasanton Ca, and has purposed to give 51% of their net profit away to youth missions. This was interesting, because in November I was given a personal prophecy that there would be funding for my ministry projects that would be provided by the East or Asian Community. I decided to meet this CEO to see if he was for real and he was. It was at this time the Lord revealed to me another stream that would be central to the end time church and revival. This stream was that God would restore the church in the marketplace.
I began to understand after being exposed to the principles of Ed Silvoso’s book “Anointed for Business” that there should not be a God-ordained division between clergy and laity. The church is not called to operate primarily inside a building. People in business are just as spiritual as those serving in traditional church ministry. Finally, that the primary role of a marketplace Christian is not just to make money to support the vision of those “in ministry” but they are called to be pastors in the corporations they work in, by being a pastor to those they work with. Every marketplace minister should have a vision to transform the marketplace with the Gospel. For every Christian is a minister and that is why today, Church should happen all over the city, every day, all day as we see in Acts 2:42. In the book of Acts there are recorded 40 supernatural power encounters and 39 of them took place in the marketplace! I now realized when the marketplace is transformed, entire cities will be transformed with the glory of God.
As I took on this position of executive director for this new youth mission foundation I began to draw up values of the organization. The three main values or components to be funded in this new foundation were to raise up houses of prayer, marketplace ministers and young adult churches in the emerging generation. I even went as far to dream with the CEO of Vineyard Technologies to have Pastors Mike Bickle (IHOP), Ed Silvoso (Anointed for Business) and Che Ahn (The Call) to be on our board of directors. Well, delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart (Ps 37:4). In a strange way it happened.
In February Pastor Che Ahn was randomly asked to speak about the Call California at my home church The River. I was asked to share my testimony of my experience with the Call NYC that same morning. After hearing my testimony Pastor Che asked me to consider praying on stage at the Call LA and the Call SF, which would be held at the Rose Bowl and 3Comm Park stadiums. I thought to myself, “could this be a fulfillment of my other vision of praying on a stage in a stadium full of young people?” Coincidentally, I was asked to drive Pastor Che to his different engagements around the city because his scheduled driver could not do so. Pastor Che and I began to develop a relationship and he began to recognize through our talks that I was very possibly an emerging apostle.
It was at this time I introduced Pastor Che to the CEO of the Korean tech company. We all connected well and sensed God was leading us together to head up this new foundation. Pastor Che became the apostle of the board and I was given the new role of producing the Call TV show. (Side note: now with Pastor Che as the chairman of our board of directors his close partnerships included Mike Bickle from the IHOP and later on, staff from Ed Silvoso ministry joined our efforts.) I was appointed to produce the Call TV show, but because of the imminence of the Call LA and Call SF approaching in February and April I was asked to mobilize for the Call on the different university campuses of California. During this 40-day period between Feb 23 and April 5 peculiar God activities began to spring up on different universities. I began to receive simultaneous reports from my university Call reps that God was uniting campus fellowships for the first time in unity, repentance and prayer. Literally, over 10 campuses were experiencing similar prayer revivals and reconciliation activity. From UC Davis to UC San Diego students were beginning to unite in dedicated fasting and prayer for the campuses. Being a revival junky, I knew through past history every major revival was preceded with prayer and unity among church leaders. I thought to myself, “Could the Holy Spirit be preparing the campuses of California for a coming revival?”
As I reported this activity to Pastor Che and Lou they both discerned God was getting ready to bring another Jesus revolution among the university campuses of California. The response was for us to strike while the iron was hot and plant new churches for the coming revival. This meant for me to drop the Call TV show and Pastor Che commissioned me to plant a new young adult church in the Bay Area. Why the Bay Area? There has never historically been a revival or revival movement that has been birthed from the San Francisco region. If anything, now would be the time for the Bay Area where only 4% of the population reports to attend church to have a youth revival movement begin.
I was hesitant to take up the great responsibility of a new church plant, being only 22 years old, but as I continued to pray it seemed this was the direction the Lord was leading me in. After praying on stage at the Call LA and Call SF and looking out over the sea of youth, I was inspired to see indeed God was raising up a young adult army for His end time battle on earth. The week after the Call SF I attended the Call School “Church Planting” intensive in Pasadena. Here is where the revelation for new wineskins for the new wine was revealed to me.
As I sat and listened to church planting principles and studied the book of Acts I began to question the way we plant and do churches in the West. It seemed to me the more I read the book of Acts the more our churches in America seemed to be done exactly opposite from the way the early Christians did church. In the west, our churches are more like movie theaters or entertaining concerts. Pastors and worship bands entertain the crowds with spectacular sermons or worship sets while church members sit in pews watching in awe. Our churches are focused on personalities, programs, paying for building budgets and new carpet. While the early church was focused on making disciples, planting new churches and giving offerings to those who had need. I began to come to a conviction that we need to raise up new wineskins for the new wine in a statement I wrote below for my Christian college senior project.
The majority of American Churches are personality, program and building based. Most Churches are affected by the 80/20 factor-where 80% percent of the Church members are spectators, while only 20% do most of the work. As a profession, Pastors are known to have the highest amounts of stress due to the pressure and fatigue of doing all the work at Church. This is a result of the congregation looking only to the Pastor for leadership, equipping and inspiration through what is known as Sunday morning service programs. It is clear, discipleship cannot happen through the pulpit alone.
Christians must also realize Church is not a movie theater where they are to simply sit down, watch and be entertained. Church is not a personality, a program or a place. The Church is a body made up of many members all doing their part to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Jesus didn’t call us to make celebrities, programs and glamorous Church buildings; He called us to make lovesick disciples.
With this conviction, I firmly believe the western paradigm of Church is upside down from the New Testament model. We find in the book of Acts that the believers met continually together not just in the temple, but also in their homes. (Acts 2:46) In fact there were no church buildings mentioned in history until the final quarter of the third century. The churches in Jerusalem were clusters of house churches or cells, practicing intense interaction (one another dynamics within and between small congregations-T&M). It was in these small group communities that the equipping of the saints became reality. In my experience the transformation of a Christian happens mainly through relationship and community.
My desire is to create an organic New Testament based church that is not dependent upon one central leader, Sunday program or religious facility. In this model every member will have a pastor and every member will be equipped to pastor someone else. Church will be known for the people who make up the Church and not the building it holds service in. The Church can be mobile to where small groups of believers meet together in a variety of locations (homes, cafes, dorms, offices, parks etc.) Once or twice a month the believers from these small groups will gather together for celebration or social service oriented events. Instead of evangelism happening mostly through a front door approach of Sunday morning service, most evangelism will take place through a side door approach of personal invitations into small group settings. This new model will include a central apostolic facility with its main purpose to administrate the house churches, keep them accountable and to be an equipping center to develop future leaders in that particular region.
Ultimately, this church model will be the beginning of a church planting movement where young adults will be equipped and trained as bi-vocational pastors to shepherd small congregations who reproduce other pastor-elders rapidly to plant other house churches.
So maybe I’m crazy, unconventional and out of my mind. Yet, this way of doing church is successful in places like China and India where they have house church networks of over one million believers. Hey, they must be doing something right! This proves to me church can be done more effectively and efficiently when you don’t have to worry about paying a large staff, paying bills on a huge building you don’t need and paying for a full time pastor to do all the work. The Bible didn’t command us to only equip pastors but to equip the saints! We are to follow Ephesians 4:11 below as our Biblical model.
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to be a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."
I seriously thought I was crazy after receiving this revelation, but the Lord confirmed to me I was not crazy through a random missionary letter from my friend Julie Wong who serves in China with YWAM. Normally, I never read Julie’s missionary letters (they are so long!), but this one fateful night the Holy Spirit told me specifically to sit down, open the letter and read it. Here is an excerpt from her letter on what she’s been learning on church planting in China.
“Learning from the way things have been done in the past, about the current situation in China, and hearing from experienced missionaries on the field have changed some of the ways I will do ministry on the field. For example, before, I might have gone in, shared the gospel with people and tried to disciple people the way I’ve been discipled in America. Maybe I would have tried to put new believers in groups that would look like the Bible study groups I’m used to seeing in America. After learning about church-planting strategies I want to reach people and from day one teach them about God’s heart for their friends and family and train new believers to start their own churches/home-groups from their own personal networks of people. One of my main goals is to train new believers leadership skills so they can train others who can train others…so exponential growth can happen.
The hugest paradigm shift is wash-braining myself of my previous ideas of what church has to look like, who is capable of leading, and how I will train and disciple new believers. In Western societies the church consists of a gifted pastor up front who does a lot of the work and an “audience” that often times feels free to passively sit back and rate the “performance”. Missionaries, especially in closed countries and pioneer fields, are trying their hardest to strip these ideas from their practice and plant things that look more like small groups, except that from the beginning they are meant to replicate (not necessarily split), every person has different responsibilities, and every person is empowered to start their own church. Leadership is flexible, and church is not attended for the one superstar in front. In fact, the missionary or head leader is encouraged to town down anything that is not replicable, including gifted speaking abilities, use of transparency machines (if locals can’t replicate that), the use of a guitar or other Western instruments, etc. Worship and time in the Word is kept simple enough that anyone can lead it. In our church-planting simulation last week, on the first day they told us to have “worship” without music. So we read some Psalms. People who were supposedly Christians for a few weeks were “leading worship”, facilitating the “Bible study”, and serving Communion. In an attempt to model the church after Acts the service was centered more around the breaking of bread and Communion than around the Bible learning or worship. Every Christian, at one point or another, was empowered and expected to lead some part of the service while the head elder/pastor was first the spiritual father of the church, but very quickly the partner, and then the observer as others were trained to quickly take over.
This idea of church has liberated me. There are hundreds of uneducated, 18, 19 year old women pastors all over China right now that are overseeing hundreds of churches. There are new believers starting their own churches after being Christian for a year. There are short-term missions teams that come in for 4 weeks and start over 100 churches. I figure if they can do it, so can I. And so can most of you reading this letter.
After coming to this conviction and revelation of doing church for the emerging generation in a new way, I have been graced to find out its already happening right here in San Jose! Pastor Caesar Butrago a church planter for City Team ministries told me he has already planted 6 house churches among the Hispanic community and is integrating the G12 (government of twelve) model from Columbia. This was a total confirmation to me because the morning before I spoke to him I was typing up a house church network plan that would integrate the G12 model in its church planting strategy.
Around the same time I also had a coffee meeting with Pastor John Isaacs the president of Pray the Bay (a network of senior pastors who meet regularly to pray for unity and revival in the Bay Area). As we shared our passions for the city, he shared with me that San Jose in particular has received two interesting prophetic words.
The first is there has been a 10 year old prophecy from a prophet in Wisconsin who saw while at a conference in Argentina a warring Angel over a city called San Jose with a double edged sword with the inscriptions “anointing” and “judgment unto righteousness” and the anointing oil dripping off the sword onto different areas of San Jose and revival fires birthing everywhere. When this prophet asked the Argentine pastors if they knew anyone in San Jose they introduced him to Pastor Ed Silvoso (acclaimed city transformation author of “That None Should Perish”). He immediately flew to San Jose and shared with him this prophecy.
The second prophecy came in 2001 from internationally known prophet Chuck Pierce. He said, “Three streams flow toward one river in San Jose…what God is going to do in San Jose will not be located in one specific congregation but will be in multiple congregations and spread across the city.” Pastor John Isaacs then said to me, “two years ago though I’m not a prophet the Lord spoke clearly to me He would bring a citywide revival to San Jose and it would start with the young people and the ethnic youth in particular.” I then shared with him my vision for an apostolic youth center in downtown San Jose. It would be a hub for many local churches to utilize by sending their intercessors to the 24-hour house of prayer to intercede for the city in two-hour shifts and offering free miracle prayer for the public. It would also be a coffee house for youth with after school programs taught by marketplace ministers from local congregations teaching youth skills in (dance, drama, arts, computers, ESL, etc). Youth would also find community service opportunities to serve the city through the youth center. Finally, it would not only be a youth outreach venue with Christian music concerts, youth services, but an equipping center to disciple and train new believers into church planters.
I immediately began to think, “Could God be putting in place a prototype model of what it looks like for churches to unite together to pastor an entire city? After pastor John heard my vision, he said, “You must be an answer to prayer because 1 year ago I went to the city council women Pat Dando and Cindy Chavez asking them if they would support a Christian youth center in downtown San Jose. They said the city would be more than supportive and even try to find state money to fund it because it’s exactly what the cities youth need. The only problem was when I went to ask the local pastors for help they said they had no time. You may very well be the person to bring this vision about.”
A day later, I was invited for lunch with the head architect for Barry Swensen Builders (the largest real estate company in San Jose owning more than 50% of all building spaces in downtown San Jose). Jeff, the head architect is a Christian and felt led by God to move from San Diego back to San Jose to reach the youth of the city. He wanted to hear about my ministry to youth in San Jose so I told him my vision for the youth center and the need for a facility. He told me he would talk to Barry Swensen himself that night to donate a facility. I received a phone call 2 days later from Jeff telling me Barry Swensen okayed for us to use a 9,000 square feet building called “The Oasis” which use to be the hottest dance club in San Jose years back, but now was empty and vacant.
We are currently meeting with a team of local church and marketplace leaders to bring the youth center vision into reality.
Could the dream I had since my freshmen year at San Jose State for a youth revival in San Jose become a reality? It wasn’t until a year ago I found out a team of six intercessors who felt led to prayer-walk San Jose State three years ago saw two visions of revival hitting the campus. One was a giant cross falling into the middle of the Student Union Ballroom where the River Church now meets for Sunday service and the second was a massive outdoor Jesus festival on campus for the students.
On May 11, 2003 after 1 year of battling every obstacle from hell, I helped produce a massive outdoor hip-hop outreach festival that brought in a few thousand un-churched young people. That day, I witnessed hundreds of students commit their lives to Jesus on SJSU university soil! As I began to put all the pieces of the puzzle together from these last four years of ministry in San Jose, questions began to arise. What would make San Jose State so unique that the university has reached ethnic plurality where no ethnicity dominates another? Could this city of innovation and provision possibly provide spiritually a new way of doing church that would reach an entire lost and dying MTV generation? Are the future end time churches going to be stadium churches filled with a nameless and faceless generation moving in the power of signs, wonders and miracles because the churches of the city are uniting together in unity?
It can’t be by accident that on August 23, 2003 over 7,000 Christ-followers from over 150 churches will unite to prayer walk 360,000+ homes in San Jose and invite each family to an evangelistic Alpha dinner in a home. It can’t be by accident the Lighthouse Prayer Movement that has been transforming entire cities across the world was birthed out of San Jose from a coalition of south bay senior pastors (Pray South Bay). It can’t be possible that Ed Silvoso who wrote the most recognized book on city transformation “That None Should Perish” would have his international ministry based in San Jose. It wouldn’t’ make sense for him to not possibly see citywide revival in his own city? Could it be that out of the Call SF a prototype model of church for the emerging generation could be born?
What if a city such as, San Jose unites to rebuild houses of prayer, redeem the lucrative Silicon Valley marketplace for God’s purposes and release young adults to plant house churches all over the city and ultimately the nations. Where the churches in the city would no longer be recognized as individual local congregations, but many congregations making up one church. Kind of like the churches in the book of Revelation only we would be called “The Church of San Jose.” Where local churches could share resources by gathering as one church in the city for united efforts to worship together and show compassion to the poor and needy.
My prayer is that God would raise up an young adult army of wholehearted, passionate and lovesick warriors who would not be afraid to stand up and worship their God in the face of persecution. May God raise up a new church for a new generation by reconciling the old and the young together to accomplish His purposes to bring the Gospel to every nation on earth (Malachi 4:6). Let us redeem the gift of Silicon Valley to be a center of spiritual innovation, provision and radical worship. Let it be the city of salvation it is called to be. The city of St. Joseph.
okay..so i'm back from prayer mountain.
it was "beautiful" and just a good time
to get away. Did I mention angels came
to me at night and took me to the 3rd
heaven? hehe..j/k Honestly, I didn't come
back with some great revelation, rather I
did alot of wrestling with God, wrestling
with my doubts and wrestling with fatigue!
haha..erica, kevin and eddie came to fast
for a day & while i was praying the 2nd day
i fell asleep and i dreamed Erica brought me
an enchilada! When i woke up she was right
at my window, but w/ no enchilada..darn :OP
after not eating for 4 days you get pretty hungry.
The moment I got off the mountain today i went
straight to the safeway..got some chinese chicken
salad, couldn't stop myself from going to the Baskin
Robins for a "strawberry shake" ..then once i got
into downtown san jose i got a LARGE BOWL OF PHO!
..mmm....praise God for food! on a side note, in the last
month i've been invited to speak and visit two churches
one in New Jersey..i tink..november & last weekend i spoke
at two places in the east bay and these two ladies from
singapore invited me to visit their church "New Creation"
in Singapore..maybe either in late aug or early sept.
hey..all expenses paid..i'm there! Lord's will be done....
i know i've been on this "serious tip" for the last few
journals..so i thot i would lighten this one up. I'll probably
post what I journaled from my praying and fasting time
tomorrow. Until then, muuUHAHhahhahhHAHhahhahahhHHAHha!
I have no idea why i've been laughing all night..especially
since i had such a serious time in the mountain..weird..good
2 be back in civilization!...one thing i did come off of the mountain
with was hope....it came right before I left...God is good! :OD
in the midst of all my doubt and tears ..i felt the Holy Spirit
tell me to open my Bible and read. (i don't do this all the time,
but i sensed the Holy Spirit telling me to on this one) I opened
it up and it landed on this verse..crazy!
Isaiah 43:1
But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have
redeemed you; I have called you by your name;
You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I
will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not
overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall
not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.
hmmm...jacob into Israel..maybe the Lord did answer my prayer?
I'm leaving for the mountains tomorrow
morning to pray and fast. I need time
alone with God, for what reason
I'm not sure, I just need to get away
and get with Him. I need to hear His
voice. I need my heart to be changed
and renewed. God hear my cry of
desperation and show me Your glory.
Make me whole, complete and mature.
Let my life be an acceptable sacrifice
to You, in order that I may know Your
perfect will. Speak to me Lord, for your
servant is listening. Speak to me for I
am ready to do Your will.
So on my june 7th blog i typed a prayer.."Lord change
me from Jacob into Israel. I prayed this right before I
went to a retreat for inner healing and deliverance.
Interesting, but the very next day at the retreat
the Pastor preached an entire message on turning
from "Jacob into Israel" and had us all declare in
the room "I AM ISRAEL" (I had no clue he would
preach this message.)
You see, Jacob was a deceiver, striver, manipulator,
do it myself to get further kind of guy. It wasn't until
he finally achieved everything that he realized he really
had nothing. He had riches, power, prestige, and even the
girl of his dreams..Rachel. Yet, even with all the blessings
he had acquired, his spirit still found no rest. In a last attempt
to find peace of mind he decided to go back home to the land
of his father Isaac. Even if it meant facing his furious
brother Esau who wanted to kill him. It was there on Mt. Bethel,
Jacob was brought to nothing. In fear of his angry brother Esau
approaching him, he gave away everything he owned to Esau in
an attempt to appease his brother. It was to no avail,
Esau was still coming to avenge his stolen birthright.
That night, at the end of his rope, with nothing left to
his name, Jacob fell into a deep sleep and had an ENCOUNTER
with God. He wrestled Him till morning, refusing to let
go until God blessed him and changed him from Jacob to
Israel. He had finally come to understand that God was
the only thing that could truly satisfy his deep longing
to be affirmed, accepted and loved. He was changed
from doing it his way (Jacob) to doing it God's way (Israel)
Instead of trying to become something, he received
from God his true identity as one who had already be-come.
He became one who was surrendered to God's dream and
no longer his own.
I had a great talk with my best friend Matt tonight. God
is not saying "no" to my dreams, in fact He put them there.
But for right now, he has me focused on another dream
he has put in my heart, one that is not as easy and
glamorous. Why? So that He may perfect me in patience,
discipline, obedience and faithfulness. He is testing me
by teaching me to "trust Him" so that one day He can
"trust me." So I welcome the discipline, because I realize
my striving is only going to lead to more emptiness. I'm
tired of building my own kingdom on my own efforts.
I want to start building His kingdom, His way, which is
effort-less. Lord change me completely, I beg of you. When will
I realize Lord, all this striving is in vain, all these accomplishments
are worth nothing, everything in this earth is fading away,
why then oh Lord do I not cherish this moment of opportune
intimacy and friendship with You?
Jacob's Dream
Jason Upton
Lyrics:
Jacob really longed to be a hero
All I really wanted was a friend
I'm the way, the life, the truth
So tell Me Jacob when will the lying end?
And does the striving make you strong?
But finally Jacob's lying down
And while he sleeps I will dream
Of a generation not known for their crowns,
Or success, but a King...
Who was not so much as interested in crowds, or
Pleasing men, but knowing Me
I have given Jacob's generation the key of David, intimacy
To open up the doorway to the nations, and release
Revelation, of intimacy, with me
Jacob had a dream for all the ages
Jacob had a drive to build a nation
But the fighting is in vain
when your only aim is to build your own great name
Because My dream's not what you do
Jacob will you dream for me
The way that I have dreamed for you
www.jasonupton.com
......................................... .... ... .. .
Lord I do dream the dream You have for me..
and I welcome it with gladness. ;oD
the days of craze....
The other night I went to visit my old church SJCAC.
It was so cool to see my old junior high sunday school
kids giving testimonies of how they
encountered God at a recent retreat. One after another
they went up to share God stories...it brought a smile
to my heart :OD There is nothing better than seeing young
people going after God with all their hearts. It was nice,
almost warming to be back at my old church, seeing all
the families and kids together in community, almost made
me want to go back....but I know God has me on another
path right now. Its a path sometimes I don't want to take,
but something I know I have to do.
Sometimes, I wish I was called immediately to Hollywood if not~
China, Africa, or some remote village to preach the Gospel.
But for some reason, God has called me to this interesting
city called San Jose.
The vision? CITY TRANSFORMATION. Heaven on earth.
To see every sector of society transformed by the GLORY of God.
To see every child, young and old worshipping God in their language.
To see Jesus as King in Government, Education and Business.
To see the Holy Spirit revive dead churches by reviving mine first.
The task? Blood, sweat and tears.
Sometimes I just want to leave this city, but I can't.
I've tried, but God won't let me go. I have other dreams,
but I guess they lay on the backburner for now.
The kingdom always comes first. Right now, the kingdom is
seeking to revive a silicon valley of dead bones. What I sense
the Lord telling me to do next is one word "crazy." But hey,
God only calls us to do "crazy things" because if it wasn't
then it wouldn't be God. So if its crazy it most likely is a
God thing, if its not, its probably my flesh talking.
Crazy insists that I need God's help to do it. I still think
to myself about 1000 times a day.."Jaeson what are you doing?
Are you crazy?" And i'm beginning to answer my thots back with
"Yeah, I think I am..in fact I think I always will be!" The kingdom
is always crazy, God is crazy, following Him is crazy, it never
makes sense, it always goes against the grain, the world will
always see it as foolish, its an upside down crazy kingdom,
but the Spirit will always speak to your spirit saying ...
"yes its crazy...but I am with you and when you're with Me
its not so crazy." Thank You Holy Spirit for that assurance...
but its still crazy! What am I doing? If I told you, you would
think, hrm..I don't know what you would think. All I know is
I'm begining to know more that I don't know much at all. The Gospel..
its a mystery and so is life, you only got one shot to live it out.
so you might as well live it out crazy. I've given my life to this Gospel,
and there is no turning back. Cause like Peter, when you grow older,
Jesus is going to lead you to places you do not wish to go. But when
you get there, I'm positive you'll be glad you decided to go..not the
safe route, but the CRAZY one.
