The Forerunner Manifesto (part six)

Kronos vs. Kairos

If you are familiar with the biblical “time” teaching of the kronos vs. the kairos, then what I have written makes sense. In God’s providence, during times of revival (kairos), time is compressed and the Kingdom advances in an exponential manner. Kairos is the appointed time in the purpose of God. These times of revival occur between other times (kronos) when we are confined by the daily schedule of clock time that supports and creates our ego structure. The longer our faithfulness in the time of kronos, the greater the succeeding intensity of the kairos time of revival.

In writing this, I have made some further sense out of everything that has happened with churches and ministries I have been involved with. For instance, there has been a continual cycle of death and rebirth of vision. Every time I started out fresh with new energy, there were offers along the way that meshed with the vision, and opportunities presented themselves without any expectation. There have been periods of time when I seemed to do more than humanly possible followed by periods of decline and frustration. These cycles have usually lasted about three years. There have been the sudden opportunities and open doors after the end of a church or ministry connection. There has often been relocation involved with the rebirthing of ministry. New Years’ Day has often been a significant time. Since I have been a believer, these birth-death cycles have been:

1985-1989

1990-1993

1994-1997

1998-2000

2001-2005

God has given me an extremely long (kronos) period since I got married. I haven’t really moved me in any particular direction as far as ministry goes. On the other hand, I see my marriage as the birth of my family, which is the most important ministry a man can have. So if the pattern holds, then 2006 may be the beginning of something big that will culminate in the next three or four years.

What does it all mean?

But let me explain this in practical terms. I don’t know what these new opportunities will be, but my feeling is that I ought to look for people to carry on this vision in strategic regions of the United States and at least two foreign countries. I’d like to go back to Europe and South America. I’d like to produce two or three DVD titles a year for the next few years and train a staff to carry on much of the work. At some point, I also think that doors are going to open for me to travel and present seminars on the topics covered in my books and DVDs. My hope is that The Forerunner will eventually become a ministry like R.C. Sproul’s Ligonier Ministries with me producing a series of books and DVDs and using the Internet and digital media as the main method of preaching the Gospel. I also plan to stay put in one place for the next few years and build a more solid financial base for my family.

The Forerunner Manifesto (part five)

Teaching High School (2001 to present)

I never joined a church the whole time I was in Pensacola because I saw my stay there as temporary. I attended several churches, but I wasn’t encouraged by what I saw there (including the Brownsville Revival). When the staff of Reel to Real moved to Nashville, I came back to Melbourne. I soon met a woman from Venezuela and got married three months later. I got a teaching job again, but once I moved to Kissimmee, Florida, most of my time and energy for ministry fell by the wayside. A bright spot has been the proximity of R.C. Sproul’s church. I don’t see this church as ever supporting my ministry, but the teaching of R.C. Sproul is an inspiration to me. He is a great preacher and it is the first church I have felt good about joining after a few years of uncertainty. Obviously, my views have become increasingly Reformed over the years and being a member of Sproul’s church has taken out of the loop of much of what is happening within the charismatic movement. I think that is a good trend and I hope more charismatics who are examining faith and doctrine will investigate Reformed theology. In fact, it is my goal to help people understand theology better through media productions.

The Future

As I already wrote, I have experienced a rebirthing of the vision for ministry in 2006. In the 1990s, I often operated under the presumption that “God told me to do this …” or “God gave me a vision to start media houses in all the nations of the world.” I haven’t received any “marching orders” like that in over six years. However, I believe more than ever that God is sovereign and directs our steps if we seek Him. I don’t blame anyone for hindering me because even those who worked against me and tried to destroy me only added to the victories God intended for me.

Today, I don’t have the same burning vision I once had. I just feel a necessity to take things one-step at a time until I can see where I am going. I also want to invite people to consider becoming to be part of the vision. I can see a time when there will be consistent support for part-time helpers. I am not looking for financial giving at this time for a ministry. I am rather looking for people of like vision who might feel called to produce Christian media or who may want to cooperate in some way. Right now, “we” at The Forerunner consist of a board of officers, a part-time website consultant and me.

The Forerunner Manifesto (part four)

Reel to Real Ministries (1997-2000)

Once the siege of Aware Woman began to wind down, I visited Eric Holmberg in Pensacola, Florida a few times. (My mother also lived in nearby Destin at that time.) He invited me to work with the Reel to Real staff. For the next two years, my life consisted of learning video production four to five days a week, spending lots of time at the beach or by the pool, and living rent free between Reel to Real’s studio and my mother’s house in Destin. I was miserable at times. A lot of this was loneliness and a God-given desire to seek a wife while being frustrated by the church scene, singles groups and so on.

But God did some remarkable things in my last year there. I produced two video presentations with Eric Holmberg, God’s Law and Society and The Beast of Revelation: Identified. However, I also produced and contributed to several video productions based out of a church ministry in Vladimir, Russia. One of the videos won an award from the Christian Broadcasters of Europe as the “Best Documentary” of 2000. There was a pastor who I had met in 1991 in Moscow, who came to Pensacola to experience the Brownsville Revival (of which I was not a big supporter). While he was there he arranged to stay with the Holmbergs. Since Eric was out of town, I became his chauffer. I immediately remembered him from 1991 at one of Bob Weiner’s Christian Youth International conferences. He amazed me because he told me that his church had been recently given an unsolicited $50,000 by an Australian missionary (a fortune in Russia) and that they had prayed and decided that God wanted them to start a television and video production ministry in Russia. He came to Pensacola partly to look for someone from Reel to Real to come and train their staff. A Finnish ministry had dubbed one of Reel to Real’s videos into Russian and it was well known among churches in the former USSR. His request was that we allow them to dub more recent material into Russian and help train their staff to produce a few projects.

1999 to 2000 became the most productive 18 months that I ever experienced in ministry. The Aware Woman abortion clinic closed; I produced three videos and contributed to several more; I published Why Creeds and Confessions? a book in the Russian language; I wrote another book on eschatology, Four Keys to the Millennium, which was published in South Africa; and took two missions trips to Russia and Ukraine. The amazing thing about this whole time period is that I operated on a budget that rarely reached over $40,000 per year. That included my support, operating expenses and funding for all missions projects.

The Forerunner Manifesto (part three)

Media House International (1993-1996)

In 1992, the president of a small missionary organization who was a friend of Bob Weiner’s, recruited me to be their international director in Lake Mary, Florida. The deal was that I would be on salary, but I could spend one-third of my time on The Forerunner while helping start publications in Russia and Ukraine. Although I had some reservations on how this would work, I decided to try it. To make a long story short, it did not work out well. This time was difficult for me personally, but the arrangement helped the ministry to prosper during that time. Today, I see it as the sovereignty of God in moving me out of Gainesville on to another place. Shortly after this, I took my third trip to Russia and Ukraine. I felt on my return that God had given me a vision to start Media House International and to begin Christian “Media Houses” in all the major continents of the world.

I already had been in contact with Keith Tucci, director of Operation Rescue National, first by writing about pro-life prayer events and finally landing in jail in April 1993 at a peaceful pro-life prayer event in Melbourne, Florida. As I wrote, I first got involved in Operation Rescue on December 31st, 1989. I had been invited to join The Forerunner on December 27th, receiving the letter on January 6th. The two events looked unrelated, but they were not coincidental. I saw Operation Rescue and pro-life activism as an integral event in my calling to ministry. I saw that the move to Melbourne made sense. Bob Weiner agreed with me that as soon as I joined Pastor Keith Tucci’s church, that the American version of The Forerunner would cease and I ought to concentrate for a time on international versions and missionary work.

There were a lot of providential circumstances that kept me going in the founding of Media House International. I once had a sum of money from several unexpected sources show up during a one-month period, which enabled me to buy a house directly across the street from the abortion clinic in Melbourne where a lot of pro-life activism was occurring at that time. There were a lot of other providential events like this too. I could see the hand of God in my venture even though I was working independently with some pastoral oversight.

Unfortunately, Melbourne was not the utopia I imagined it might be. When I moved into the “Green House” (as it was called) across the street from the Aware Woman abortion clinic in 1993, I was surrounded by people who thought only about pro-life ministry and not much beyond that. I felt that there was now a disparity between where I had been, where I wanted to go, and how other people saw me. I think most people saw me as an unemployed person who published a fundraising newsletter. I experienced a small identity crisis. I was used to being respected by well-known Christian leaders. Ironically, I became one of the most consistent pro-lifers in Melbourne. At least, that is how the owners of the abortion clinic across the street viewed me when they unsuccessfully sued me a few years later.

In fact, this was my most successful period of ministry up to that time. From 1994 to 1996, I took three missions trips to Russia and Ukraine and one to Costa Rica and Peru; I bought the Green House; I began the Forerunner.com website; I published one edition each of The Champion and The Forerunner International; I published six issues of The Mandate including one in the Chinese language; I published one issue of El Campeón that was distributed in Costa Rica, Peru and Cuba; I distributed over 400,000 copies of Predvestnik and other publications in the former USSR; I got arrested for the fifth time in a pro-life “Rescue-type” event; I helped lead a cell group with former Maranatha (UTK) student leader Jeff Dwiggins; and as they say, much, much more!

Then in 1997, everything began to wind down. I suddenly had less money and I started to work as a banquet server part-time at the Hilton at Melbourne Beach. This is also a time period when several of my friends began to leave our church citing the same problems that I had seen before in other churches. I met with my pastor and explained that although I did not personally have any problems with him, it was not God’s will to raise me up in a ministry as a member of that church. The split was amicable, although he disagreed. I didn’t plug into another church for the next year or so. Much of the activity at the Aware Woman abortion clinic began to taper off after the state of Florida announced plans to bulldoze the abortion clinic under eminent domain to widen U.S. Highway 1. I liked that outcome because no pro-lifer could take credit for the victory. Today no abortion clinic operates in that entire county.

I took one more missions trip to the Netherlands and Ukraine, but it was a low point for me as far as vision and energy. I began to think more about being married and having a family. But I had little material security except a run-down house to show for all my hard work. I have always been an independent person. I am a native Bostonian whose self-reliant philosophy deterred me from Christ for my entire youth even though I have always been aware of God’s calling on my life. Even today, I believe that we simply needs to be certain of God’s will and then throw ourselves into His purpose and destiny. I believe that everything that has happened with me is by God’s grace. All things work together for good and He is correcting me all along the way.

The Forerunner Manifesto (part two)

Beginnings (1986-1988)

There are actually two histories of The Forerunner. One involves Lee Grady who was the managing editor for almost nine years from 1981 through 1989. Our paths crossed only briefly for six months before he moved on in 1989 and I became the editor. I had published a newsletter in Boston called The Holiness Herald from 1987 to 1989 with my cousin. We published 20 issues in two-and-a-half years. We always wanted to expand the Holiness Herald to a magazine format and produce multi-media seminars on the history of Revival and Spiritual Awakening. Then a dramatic calling to ministry occurred on New Years’ Day 1989. I was arrested and spent three days in jail with Operation Rescue after having participated for the first time in a non-violent prayer event at an abortion clinic in Brookline, Massachusetts. This occurred after I had been in my first teaching job for six months. I was a typical burnt-out first year teacher questioning the choice of my career. To make a long story short, on the basis of my work with this little newsletter I was offered a position with The Forerunner.

Maranatha and Post-Maranatha (1989-1992)

I had been a member of Maranatha for less than two years (1987 to 1989) when the ministry broke up. For the last six months of 1989, I worked in the international office in Gainesville with Lee Grady and a copy editor/administrator. When I first met Lee Grady, he told me that I was the answer to many years of prayer. He wanted to train someone to take his place so he could move on and train young people in foreign countries to produce international versions of The Forerunner. I immediately took this vision to heart. I was also excited that Eric Holmberg of Reel to Real Ministries was part of the international office because I eventually wanted to do video productions.

Everything was like a dream for those brief six months until November 1989 when the board of Maranatha decided that the answer to problems the ministry had had since its foundation was to dissolve the corporate headquarters and give the local churches complete autonomy. Lee Grady found a job writing for Charisma and National and International Religion Report. I stayed in Gainesville and dialogued with three of the Maranatha board members in charge of the dissolution of the international office. I insisted that I was going to continue The Forerunner. They did not want me to do that because it was their job to dissolve the ministry corporation. Then Bob Weiner, the founder of Maranatha, asked me to continue the publication under the auspices of his evangelistic endeavor (today called simply: Weiner Ministries International). I produced the next issue without missing a beat. It wasn’t the best issue ever from a design standpoint, but the content was good and I steadily improved in coming months.

For the next year, Eric Holmberg graciously allowed me to operate out of his office in Gainesville, most of the time rent-free. I taught part-time in a Christian school until I was able to get my support to the level where I could work only on the newspaper full-time. Bob Weiner took a one-year sabbatical and his attitude toward The Forerunner was hands-off. I probably had more freedom to develop my writing and vision for ministry than the other editors before me. For the first year, our interaction was mainly in prayer meetings with Rose Weiner and Rusty Russell in which we prayed for our collective ministry endeavors and world events. Once a month, Bob would go over the newspaper articles with me on the phone and suggest about a dozen superficial changes. Mainly, the Weiners were an encouragement to me and stated from the outset that they wanted to release this ministry to me once I could stand on my own.

In 1991, I traveled to Russia and Ukraine two times. I founded the Russian language Forerunner, Predvestnik, through Bob Weiner’s new organization Christian Youth International. Predvestnik was an independent ministry birthed out of my own vision and fundraising efforts along with whatever Bob Weiner was able to contribute as a tireless organizer.

By 1992, I had become dissatisfied with my church experience in Gainesville. The local Maranatha Church had closed. I attended a Vineyard Church and made some good friends there. The Vineyard was mainly a pietistic church that ministered to people who had been burnt out in hyper-evangelistic churches. It was good for the first few months because I needed a change of pace. I felt that the focus on “inner healing” and “body ministry” was needed for a few months, but it became irrelevant to me after a while. Eric Holmberg needed extra space for his video production ministry and asked me to move out of his office space soon after my second trip to Russia and Ukraine. I was alone in my apartment for many hours out of the day working on The Forerunner. I began to want to be part of a church family or a larger ministry with a like vision again.

There was also a lot of controversy in Gainesville pertaining to the break-up of Maranatha. One pastor in town rebuked me for continuing to work with the Weiners. I think many people thought that the former leaders of Maranatha should have just dried up and blown away. There was a lack of grace and some accusations hurled at the Weiners, which I felt was unfair. Bob took a year long Sabbatical beginning in November 1989 in order to get some pastoral guidance and reassess the purpose of his ministry. This lasted until he began Christian Youth International in March of 1991. Since that time, Bob has not taken oversight of churches or any ministry that is not directly related to his own work.

The Weiners proved to be the most generous partners I’ve ever been involved with even though we did not agree on everything. In the past 17 years, I have not been overly concerned with the controversy surrounding Maranatha’s break-up because I always saw my ministry as something that was birthed out of the heart of God for reaching the world with a victorious Gospel message. Ministries come and go. God’s Kingdom is forever.

The Forerunner Manifesto (part one)

Preface

Some people have asked me to relate the story behind The Forerunner, how it came to be, what is my past and present involvement. I hope to relate a short biography of my life since I became a Christian in 1985. “The Forerunner Manifesto” is a history of my ministry work. I have tried to be as transparent as possible here. I focus mainly on the positive because this is really my perspective, but I also tell about some of my struggles. At the same time, I have tried not to present myself as a perfect person living in a perfect world. I will also try to answer any questions that you may have.

The Forerunner Manifesto

It’s been said: “If you don’t know where you are going, then any road will get you there. But if you know where you have been, you have an idea of the road you need to travel.”

Most people encountering The Forerunner see it as a website that was started in 1996. In fact, the website is a privately owned yet related component to a non-profit group I started in 1994 called Media House International. From 1990 to 1993, The Forerunner was a small newspaper published eight to ten times a year under the auspices of Bob Weiner Ministries. From 1981 to 1989, it was a nationally distributed monthly publication of Maranatha Ministries. Few people today make the connection between the current ministry of The Forerunner and Maranatha Ministries since that organization ceased to exist almost 17 years ago. I was part of Maranatha only briefly from 1987 to 1989 (about 18 months) and a member of three churches during that time: Amherst, Boston and Gainesville. I enjoyed the time I spent with my pastors who remain well-loved friends. In that short period of time, I made many friends and ministry associates who remain close to me even today. Even though this was a brief time, the association with Maranatha was foundational to everything I have done since.

Where I am at in July of 2006

I currently live in Kissimmee, Florida. I am proudly married to a Venezuelan woman and teach English in an urban populated public high school. I am a member of St Andrew’s Chapel, an independent Presbyterian Church pastored by R.C. Sproul. In my part-time, I am actively involved in Christian media projects, I manage a teacher’s softball team and I take an occasional graduate level English course.

I am sure you’ve heard the story of two men who were working construction and were asked what they were doing: One said, “I’m laying bricks.” The other, “I’m building a cathedral.” The point is that people often lose the glorious big picture by concentrating on the tough details.

A similar story might be told of one of The Forerunner’s former contributing editors, who laid aside his six-figure income in a major investment corporation to pursue ministry. After two years of frustration with church politics, he decided to pursue a seminary doctorate in biblical archaeology and languages. His ultimate goal is to teach at the seminary level in order to train ministers to preach the gospel. Last fall, I asked him how it was going. He said, “I don’t know because I haven’t learned much yet.” In the first stages, he is learning Greek and Hebrew and taking an Old Testament survey class. Many people lose their faith while squandering years in seminary because they get fed liberalism and never get an opportunity to participate in ministry and see lives changed. Having known this brilliant man for the past 20 years, I have great hope that he will rise above this “brick-layer” syndrome.

Similarly, I feel as though the last five years of my life have been wasted in this way as far as “Christian ministry” is concerned. In 2001, I was married for the first time and realized that I needed to teach high school again and build a stable career and family life. I know it was God’s will for me to take this time after living on a shoestring budget for many years as a single person. It has been a drastic change of pace, teaching in a public school and not being surrounded 100 percent of the time by Christian activists and missionaries. However, since January 2006, I’ve experienced a rekindling of the vision for The Forerunner. Partly this was because I spent some time redesigning the website and I came to think about where I have been and where in the world I want to go.

New Website on Church Fathers

http://forerunner.com/churchfathers/churchfathers.html

Here is the URL of a new web site featuring over 100 works by the Church Fathers (AD 70 - AD 200). Each summer for the past few years, I've promised myself that I was going to immerse myself in the writings of the Church Fathers. I've always been fascinated by the theology of those Christians who were only one or two generations removed from the life-time of Jesus and the Apostles.

Recently, ancient Christological heresies of the first two centuries AD have been promoted in full force by the media. The Da Vinci Code and the recent National Geographic cover story on the Gospel of Judas are prime examples. Although these heresies are nothing new, the problem is that the average Christian knows little about patristic orthodoxy. In AD 2006, we need to be prepared to refute heresy that was already dealt with by Christians before AD 200.

In completing the web site, I've had the chance to go a little bit deeper in my study of the church fathers. I've added short introductions, bios and images of the Church Fathers. Bookmark the page and check back in a few weeks. I also hope to create further pages featuring the rest of the Ante-Nicene Fathers some of the Post-Nicene and Eastern Fathers. I will also add many major works by the Reformers and Revivalists of the Middle and Modern Ages. I also hope to include some important writings and documents by those in the 21st century seeking to reclaim the vision for historic orthodoxy.

Although there are other sites like this one on the Internet, many rely on external links or are difficult to navigate. It's my hope to show the continuous thread of orthodoxy within the church especially with the many Christological heresies that are currently being promoted by the popular media.

So hopefully, The Forerunner will provide an important resource to those who believe that orthodoxy matters.

- Jay Rogers