PERSONAL PREPARATION

FOR MINISTRY BACKGROUND

      My first twelve years after salvation were filled with varied experiences. These compelled me to consider all of Scripture pertaining to a doctrine in order to arrive at balanced truth. My first experiences were in the Charismatic movement where I came to know some dear brothers and sisters. However, while I saw there were some scripturally legitimate teachings with which I could agree, I also saw much of what was  confusing and biblically questionable. During this time, I began to learn three major lessons:

      1)  Every supernatural manifestation occurring in a church setting is not necessarily the Spirit of God. Before salvation, I was familiar with the supernatural as I had grown up in New Orleans with its voodoo shops in the French quarter and had briefly engaged in ESP and even knew some who were levitating. (Please read our book,” Counterfeits and Deceptions in the Church”).

      2) When an element of truth involves unbiblical exaggerations and extremes, then that truth is out of balance—and truth out of balance is error. Error carried to its ultimate end becomes heresy.

      3) Unbalanced doctrines may often seem small, but grow to become poisonous and deadly. If you wanted to kill a horse, you wouldn't feed him a bucket of strychnine; you’d just put a few drops in the feed. Our enemy knows this lethal principle well, since he’s the author of it.

      So, again, while I felt I had some true brothers and sisters in the Charismatic Movement, I also saw so much confusion and error that I couldn’t remain. TheLord then provided me opportunity to be part of different mainline denominations and other theological/doctrinal camps. I witnessed and experienced 

various doctrines as they played out before me in real life, in families and church bodies, with their  consequences for better or worse.

      In these early years, I was able to travel extensively in the U.S. and abroad. I experienced, studied, learned and was able to be mentored. I was involved in various ministries, including street ministry.(Further descriptions of my experiences are shared in several of our books.)

     The Lord did not lead me to pursue the “normal” seminary route and, in retrospect, I can see how this would not have fit the plan, purpose and call God had for me. However, the Lord did lead me to audit similar courses simultaneously at two seminaries in the same city. They held opposing doctrinal viewpoints: Reformed (Calvinistic) and Wesleyan (Arminian). At these seminaries, I saw how unbalanced doctrines left the students with many unanswered questions.

      I enjoyed fellowship with brothers and sisters across denominational and nondenominational lines; however, I came to realize that what they were often teaching was doctrine that lacked biblical balance. Usually, their members held beliefs skewed toward the denomination’s doctrinal beliefs, rather than having their own doctrinal convictions and conclusions through unbiased study of Scripture. I frequently witnessed that when a Scripture verse disagreed with someone’s affiliation, this verse would be ignored or quickly breezed over.

      I came to understand God doesn’t want us to throw out any Scripture because it doesn’t line up with our particular affiliation’s beliefs. When a doctrinal question arises, if a person does not desire to search

out the answer in Scripture and instead insists on only interpreting the answer from a pre-held position, then further discussion is futile. Moreover, I discovered such persons were often mistaken about the beliefs of opposing affiliations.

      After these first fifteen years of salvation and ministry, I spent over thirty years as a non-denominational church pastor, which provided a time for teaching, studying, and writing. Often a personal experience would come first that would then send me to the Word to seek understanding. It was because of my own need for biblical balance that I studied volumes of systematic theology (Bible doctrines) written from various doctrinal viewpoints. It was after spending untold hours laboring through theological terminology often with complex, confusing and contradictory explanations that the Lord brought me to have a burden to present what I'd learned in a clear and more simple way. I wanted to present doctrinal teaching with scriptural balance and plain life application. I wanted books

that would benefit the hungry everyday, common, born again believer, not just the aspiring theological scholar. I wanted to present doctrinal balance with simple personal application without becoming shallow in explanation or application.

      After 45 years of personal experience in preaching and teaching biblical balance, God has confirmed to me that such teaching enables Christians to achieve a healthy, scriptural, victorious, Spirit-filled walk.

      It is worth reiterating  that Biblical balance is beautiful and nourishing. It is safe and secure to rest in a balanced understanding of God’s Word and truth. As we grow, we continually gain more insight into the absolute harmony of God’s Word. Line upon line, precept upon precept, our doctrinal understanding is built with the stones of balanced truth. By this, our Christian life will be one of Spirit-filled victory that allows us to grow in Christian character and godliness.