Acts 29/ERM Ministries

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MinistryWatch.com’s Take
May 2005
By J. Andrew Preslar

A Church Divided

Depending upon who you ask, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) is either: (a) a denomination in shambles which has divested itself of the ability to worship and obey God in the fullness of the Faith; (b) a church which, despite some controversy, is healthy and vibrant because of its celebration of diversity, practice of tolerance, and ability to compromise on doctrine and morals; (c) a church in the midst of a difficult and sad period in its history, but still possessing the means of grace and enough faithful people (clergy and laity) to make for a realistic expectation of renewal. What everyone acknowledges, however, is that ECUSA has suffered a staggering depletion of membership and church attendance over the past 40 years (membership declined by 36 percent between 1965 and 2000; church attendance declined by 68 percent during the same period). ECUSA is faced with an identity crisis which is at the same time, and by virtue of the same causes, a possible threat to its very existence.

Episcopalians, ex-Episcopalians and other concerned Christians have watched, studied, prayed and taken action as the national church leadership has moved the denomination in new and unprecedented directions in the past several decades. Ordination of women (beginning in 1976) and the consecration of an openly homosexual bishop (November 2003) have placed ECUSA at odds with the universal tradition of the Church. Activists within the denomination, including the majority of the national leadership, believe that these changes represent progress towards a more open, inclusive and egalitarian faith. Such “progress” is bought with a price. A significant number of Episcopalians responded to the first anomaly (women’s ordination) by leaving the denomination in order to preserve, with bishops in Apostolic Succession, the sacramental life as experienced by Christians throughout the history of the Church. Some 25 years later, when Gene Robinson, a non-celibate homosexual, was consecrated Bishop of New Hampshire, even more church members (many of whom have no problem with the ordination of women) became alarmed at the degree to which their leadership was willing to shrug off clear biblical teaching and Church tradition. ECUSA now officially endorses (and unofficially has long approved and celebrated) a practice which the Bible presents as a barrier to the Kingdom of Heaven (cf., 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Nevertheless, many Bible-believing Episcopalians have chosen to continue as part of the denomination, hoping to reform it from within. The task seems just about impossible; then again, God is known amongst his people for doing great things in spite of the odds.

Charismatic Renewal in the Episcopal Church

Sadly, it seems to many that the Episcopal Church (USA), far from being a light to the world, has itself become something of a mission field. Acts 29 Ministries, formerly known as Episcopal Renewal Ministries (ERM), is a group of Episcopalians dedicated to sending out laborers into the harvest. Acts 29 is a parish-oriented ministry whose mission is to re-ignite Christians at the local level. This takes place by means of a variety of parish renewal conferences. These conferences are centered upon a vision of “reclaiming the power of Pentecost” for the church today.

Bible-believing, orthodox Episcopalians have adopted various strategies for reclaiming their church. Acts 29 is not so much geared towards direct confrontation with heresy as towards charismatic renewal in individual parishes which are seeking a way forward. In fact, Acts 29 seems to exhibit a tendency to gloss over doctrinal differences within the Episcopal Church in order not to “quench the Spirit” at the local level.

Nevertheless, Acts 29 does have a national focus, and it is difficult not to measure their work against the drift of the Episcopal Church at large. Revisionist Episcopalians tend to view renewal movements as an attack upon their denomination. Bishops often discourage parishes in their dioceses from participating in ministries such as Acts 29, on the grounds that such groups represent a “broad right-wing movement” which threatens ECUSA’s “socially progressive” ideology. Acts 29, with its emphasis upon renewal in and by the Holy Spirit, is essentially a top down (spiritually, not administratively) movement – God comes to us and changes us where needed. ECUSA, despite its top-down administrative efforts to impose radical innovation as the norm in all of its dioceses, essentially advocates a bottom-up, democratic kind of spirituality in which every view and practice is on an equal plane in the church. Thus, revisionist Episcopalian conceptions of religion and spirituality are fundamentally opposed to charismatic renewal in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Renewal ministries, including Acts 29, because of their emphasis on the biblical account of Pentecost as the (ideally) normative experience of the Church in every age, tend to express themselves in traditional charismatic/Pentecostal categories (e.g., baptism of the Spirit, speaking in tongues). Although the renewal movement disclaims any specifically theological purpose (“theology divides, experience unites”), there is evidence of a tendency towards conservatism in doctrine and pietism in ethics. The name “Acts 29" itself is suggestive of continuity with Scripture (the Acts of the Apostles ends at chapter 28), and the organization bearing that name is careful to present its movement as “biblically based.” In any event, Acts 29/ERM has a track record which stands in stark contrast to one trend in ECUSA: the organization has demonstrated the ability to help local congregations transition from “decline to vitality.”

Building Communities of Faith

Acts 29 programs operate at the local, regional and national levels. Emphasis upon charismatic gifts expressed in overt manifestation of spiritual power serves as the common denominator in each outreach.

Catching the Wind is a conference designed to “Reclaim the power of Pentecost and make it more normative in the life of the local church.” Acts 29 cites the marks of Apostolic ministry, so vividly portrayed in the Acts of the Apostles, as: preaching which brings conversion, healing of the sick, exposing the demonic and casting out demons. They then pose the question: “Would you like to impact your culture in this way?” Teaching sessions help clergy and laity to achieve such results by means of learning how to: minister with power and authority; cooperate with the Holy Spirit by learning to listen for his voice; avoid common barriers to supernatural ministry; and putting ministry into action by healing the sick.

Opening Doors is an evangelism training event which is designed to equip the local church in proven methods of bringing people into the community of faith. Practical models with specific “how-to” instructions are featured as means by which a church can develop a successful strategy of evangelism.

Drawing Closer is a conference ministry designed to help Christian grow and mature in their faith by examining four major areas of spiritual development: (1) Freedom from Sin – this session addresses the destructive nature of sin and the means of overcoming temptation. (2) Healing the Hurts – this session deals with the reality of human brokenness as faced in everyday events and encounters. People are taught that God has specific ways in which he wants us to deal with hurt. Learning God’s plan of restoration and healing frees Christians of false views about themselves, the Church, the world and God. (3) Living by the Book – this session looks at the central role of Scripture in learning the ways of God’s Kingdom. Discipleship (Kingdom living) is seen to involve prayer, worship, fellowship and ministry. These are essential to a well structured Christian life – not merely matters of convenience. (4) Power for Living – the final session of the conference is meant to help people understand the vital role of the Holy Spirit for empowerment to live the Christian life. Willpower and self-effort are necessary but insufficient to carry us far along the pilgrim’s road. God wants us to experience healing and cleansing, and to become spiritually equipped through the power of his Spirit.

Men’s Ministry is a conference outreach for Christian men. This is a discipleship program centered upon the “7 M’s of Men’s Ministry”: Mission, Manhood, Morality, Money, Marriage, Mid-life and Ministry. Every aspect of life is related to the plan of God and the life of the Church in order to help men to understand their true identity and responsibilities as Christians and to maintain a Christ-centered walk in all that they do.

YouthQuake is Acts 29's largest event. This is a regional event for teens and youth leaders held several times a year at various locations across the country. YouthQuake is designed to be “a time of crucial, life-shaping ministry to youths who will one day inherit the mantle of leadership within the church.” These three-day events feature performances by popular contemporary Christian musicians, outdoor activities, and plenty of “Spirit-filled” worship and prayer.

The ministry of renewal conducted at these conferences events is supplemented by two major publications: “Acts 29,” a “full-fledged magazine which seeks to tell the new chapters God is writing in the hearts and lives of those who love Him”; and “New Chapters,” a leadership newsletter which keeps people informed about the activities of Acts 29. The Rev. Alan Hansen, founder and president of Acts29/ERM, in addition to his duties as conference speaker, maintains a mentoring relationship with a number of parochial clergy, helping them to training leadership, resolve conflicts and grow their churches. Rev. Hansen is a seasoned veteran of parochial ministry, with more than 20 years of experience as a parish minister.

Again, these programs are not designed to tackle apostate Episcopalianism head-on. Rather, they serve to renew the church by “cultivating righteousness” in individual parishes and among the youth (it is interesting to observe how modernism in religion is so abysmally “adult”; young people have uncanny abilities to sniff out a fraud). Acts 29 is not, however, ministering in a theological vacuum. The charismatic movement, as has already been noted, presupposes that God can act directly in human affairs. Thus, the supernaturalism of Acts 29 construes the action of God in terms of Holy Spirit Baptism and in other categories (e.g., freedom from sin, evangelism and discipleship) which are presumed to be objective and to involve obedience to a revealed pattern of godliness. Measured by ECUSA’s dominant ideology of moral permissiveness and theological/hermeneutical agnosticism, these are truly radical (and traditional!) notions.

A Candle in the Wind

Critics, supporters and would-be reformers of ECUSA all understand that the issues of women’s ordination and homosexuality, as crucial as they are in themselves, are in some respects just the tip of the iceberg. The theological and moral decline of ECUSA is the ongoing result of complex factors, including modernism (which tended to impose the methodology of modern science on all other disciplines) post-modern backlash (with the attendant agnosticism/relativism), and, truth be told, schism and other failings of charity amongst doctrinally orthodox Anglicans/Episcopalians. Dr. Leslie Fairfield of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, an Anglican renewal institution, aptly summarizes the process of apostasy and numerical decline in ECUSA:

Beginning in the early 1870's, a theology deeply skeptical about many of Christianity’s central claims began to influence the leadership of the Episcopal Church, and then spread throughout it. By the late 1960's it had come to dominate the church entirely. And over the next two decades, more than a million Episcopalians left the denomination, the membership aged till the average member was in his or her late fifties, the number of missionaries shrank to almost nothing, and the Church became more and more divided over basic questions of doctrine and morality. . . . Among the educated, the traditional theistic worldview was crumbling rapidly, as evolutionary science seemed to have proved that humanity was constantly and inevitably improving, and the ‘sciences’ of textual criticism and history seemed to have proved that the biblical texts were primitive and contradictory. While many of the educated still held to Christianity, theirs was increasingly a Christianity stripped of its spiritual substance (“Modernist Decline and Evangelical Renewal: The Episcopal Church from 1873 to 1998”).

Episcopal renewal ministries, of which Acts 29 is a prime representative, exist precisely for the purpose of injecting some “spiritual substance” back into the Episcopal Church. Their efforts might appear to be but candles flickering in the howling winds of institutional apostasy; and yet, there is evidence that the renewal movement is gaining ground within the denomination. As many as one-fifth of communicant members in ECUSA are in some way involved in the charismatic renewal. Although renewal leaders and congregations tend to walk a fine line with respect to traditional Anglicanism (e.g., sacraments, liturgy and the necessity of episcopal ministry), there have recently been concerted efforts on the part of many within the charismatic movement to articulate a theology of renewal that is grounded in a historic understanding of Anglican belief and practice. Along with other reforming forces at work to preserve a genuine Episcopal Church in America (including the newly formed separated [“continuing Anglican”] provinces) the charismatic renewal might very well be grounds for hope that the Anglican branch of the universal Church, in its American province(s), might not be entirely lopped off, but rather flourish to the glory of God.