There is an increase in the number of healings. We are hearing stories of regular "no-name" people praying, and remarkable healings occurring. These stories include healing from things like cancer, major abdominal problems etc. Those praying are not those with a healing ministry, but just a group of ordinary Christians praying for someone with a physical or emotional problem. Sometimes they are occurring out in the marketplace.
There is an increased hunger to hear about simple church. Many people are asking questions, searching for answers. Many leaders within various denominations have become open to these concepts.
Churches are being planted cross-culturally, both within different nationalities such as Afghan, Cuban etc and across cultural boundaries such as with the homeless.
Simple churches are becoming more missional. We are hearing stories of simple churches that started with people who left legacy churches now turning outwards and reaching out into their communities. It's as though some have needed a period of time so they can experience some personal healing, but now that has been accomplished, they have become very Kingdom minded and outreach focused.
More women are engaged in church planting. We heard of one example of a group being formed for women who are planting churches.
Please feel free to add any other trends you have observed from your own context. To read all six of Felicity's observed trends, check out the link above, as well as my comment as to why I don't see her 6th trend applying much with us here locally.
2 comments:
Guy, I'm a little late in posting here....but we have been seeing healing here for over 2 years. This includes my husband being healed from rheumatoid arthritis. We've also had a volunteer healed of a sleep disorder. We've seen local members and those that are seeking experience healing.
We follow the Biblical pattern of anointing with oil and praying as a congregation for the sick. Not all are healed and we even had one young man die (but his family is now coming to faith in Christ). We do this as part of our worship service as needed, usually at the request of a member or attender. We leave the results up to the Lord, so it is definitely not a "healing service."
We continue to pray for the sick, for the lost, for our community and we are definitely seeing the Lord move in our midst in mighty ways. We serve an awesome God and He is still the God who parts the Red Sea, makes the blind to see, and the lame to walk.
Thanks for posting this.
Deborah,
I am glad you picked up on this post. I thought Felicity's "Trends" is an amazing thing when happening in so many different places, and not just there in the USA. I think it is great that you guys are following the Biblical pattern for dealing with the sick. I have often wished we would do more of the same here. The cornerstone passage of our training is Luke 10, where one of the clear commands of Christ is to "heal", and that is stated before "say..."
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