Toronto Day 3

We arrived late to the first session of the day, but just in time to hear C. Peter Wagner talk again.  I am intrigued by this 80 year old guy.  All I knew of him was a vague WIllard recommendation from a lecture series 10 years ago where Dallas said "You don't know Peter Wagner?  You need to know Peter Wagner."  Now I know Peter Wagner.

In each of his sessions Wagner presented the most comprehensive vision of the Kingdom of God I have ever heard articulated.  Every sphere of human life and global system is imagined as coming under the reign of God.  We get used to hearing this in the Lord's Prayer, but you sit and listen to someone map out a plan for how he sees Christians "infiltrating" media, business, government, religion, technology, medicine, and education (called these the "7 M's") and the concreteness of it all is startling. 

You realize how abstractly you pray "Your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" when someone begins to say  "First we do this, then we do this, and now that this is in place we will do this."  The specificity of it all was engaging but entirely new.

And then he talked about how the Freemasons need to be taken out of their seats of power in each of these 7 M's.  I never know what to do when someone starts blaming the Freemasons.  It always seems like a trailer park conspiracy theory.  When I mention my misgivings, "of course it seems that way, Satan is way to clever for his plans to be obvious, so he uses Freemasons to accomplish his devious plans".  This is not convincing because you can prove absolutely anything this way.  I don't know what to make of that, Wagner is clearly a brilliant man who doesn't just say things without being able to back them up.  For example, before beginning to teach on workplace and ministry he read 150 books across the various streams of theology and disciplines before beginning to articulate his own ideas.  So I don't know what to think.  Toying with the idea of joining the Shriners and working my way up.  At the least I will get to drive a cool little car and wear a beanie, eventually I may be president of the US since they are all Freemasons.  Plus I read, THE LOST SYMBOL and enjoyed it.

Then it was time for lunch, during which I enjoyed a fine roast beef sandwich. 

Aaron and I walked back to the hotel and I worked out for a couple hours.  I swam laps for the first time since my lifeguarding days, reconfirming for me that I was possibly the worst swimming lifequard that there ever was.  When I returned to our room Scott and Aaron were both in their jammies which was kind of amusing since it was 4pm and watching a Denzel Washington movie.  I realized I forgot my shirt at the pool and went to get it.  When I came back the lights were out in the room and my two charges were power napping.  It was the shortest nap ever as literally 30 seconds after I returned they declared themselves not tired anymore and played a few hands of poker whilst I managed my hockey draft trades.

Turns out the vegging time was time well spent.  The afternoon session was apparently not so good.  Even gracious Gloria didn't stay for the whole thing. 

I did however feel the need to re-affirm for the protege's and myself that we were here to learn and experience and be open and so for the nights session we were going to do absolutely everything they told us to do and do it expectantly.  The fellas were willing so off we went.

I went to my spot on the balcony and settled in.  Two columns in my notebook, the left dedicated to jotting down whatever insights and impressions I was experiencing and the right for actually tracking with the talk.  By the end of the talk, both sides were full and so was I.  I can't stress that enough.  I tend to write here as though the more sensational and crazy is what is most formative about this for me, that is not the case.  Not at all.  It is however, a little to personal to simply throw out there in this format, and it is also a little too soon to see if there is any fruit from it.  There have also been many good things happening in the hearts of all of us, but those are stories of forgiveness, healing, courage, and blessing are not mine to tell.

During the talk the level of laughter in the room was growing to a very high level.  It was clearly distracting the speaker, who is no stranger to it.  It seems to me like he stopped short and went into the "healing" time at the end.  This was where the three of us had committed to being more than observers and full on participants. 

So when he told us to put our hands in the air, we did.

When he told us to grab a piece of heaven and haul it down, we grabbed.

When he told us there were going to be some dental miracles in the room we all had our hands on our faces and prayed furiously and as sincerely as you can when you are watching Scott and Aaron check their molars for new gold fillings.  After we prayed I went to the bathroom to check my own teeth.  Nothing.  However there were at least 5 people in the room who had shiny new gold crowns.  One was this elderly guy who was absolutely thrilled.  What I liked about this, is that there is a decided before and after (unless you are going to call them all liars).  When someone is saying there is less pain in their knee than an hour ago it is hard to not think, "well, an hour ago you just finished sitting in one position for 3 hours, and for the last hour you have been boogying around effectively making the joint limber, no wonder it feels better".  With a gold crown that was not there before and the joy on person's face you more or less have to just cheer along with everyone and be glad that for the rest of this person's life they get to look in the mirror and celebrate the Father who gave them an extravegant gift. 

This AM we all checked our teeth again.  Nothing.

But I was proud of us all for "going for it", I remember thinking to myself, "Holy Spirit if you are willing to be Disneyland who am I to refuse to go on any rides." 

Then it was prayer time.  You all line up on these green lines on the rug and wait for a prayer and a catcher to attend to you.  The pattern is clearly established.  You are prayed for, given a little push or a soft exhale from someones mouth and then you fall backwards.  I was about three rows back from Scott and four back from Aaron - although I was trying to not pay attention to them because I wanted to really focus on whatever personal stuff I needed to focus on.   I also really wanted this to be a definitive thing.  If I went down I really wanted to not have to wonder about the reality of it later.  Basically, I was not going down unless I had no choice in the matter.

After about 5 minutes of personal praying and waiting a lady appeared in front of me and the catcher stood ready to go.  She put her hand on my chest and prayed for Holy Spirit to enter me and gave me a light shove.  My heart was racing in anticipation and excitement.  But I didn't fall.  She prayed again, this time saying "Don't resist" and to affirm to her and God my openness I out loud said "fill me Holy Spirit".  Then she gave me a good shove, I had to take a step back, and the catcher turned into a puller with a hand on my shoulder trying to pull me back.  I didn't go down.  I wanted the Holy Spirit to knock me over if it happened.  They moved on to the next person.  I stood there awhile toying with seeing if another prayer would have more success with me.  But no one came so I wandered off and watched Scott, Aaron, and Ray and Gloria who will have their own stories to tell.

Then I saw the guy who had been standing next to me while we were getting prayed for.  He didn't go down either so I asked if I could talk to him for awhile.  He was happy to oblige.  I asked him what his church background was and was surprised to hear he was from a TACF church and had been there for over 10 years.  I assumed because of the way he carried himself that he was Dutch Reformed or something.  He asked why I was wondering and I told him my worries that I was somehow blocking the work of the Holy Spirit in my life with some issue, how I wanted to give all this stuff a fair shake, but nothing was really happening in me like what I was observing all around me.

I expected him to say "Yeah probably you are too cognitive, let God just have his way." or "You are too proud and need to be in control, let God humble you like a child."

But he didn't.  He just laughed and said, "Of course not, you are simply wired so very differently than most of these people.  Relax.  The main thing is taking whatever you receive here and living it out around you.  My wife is right into this.  For 10 years I have watched her fall over, dance around, and do all kinds of emotional stuff.  But not me.  And God made you exactly how He wants you to be.  Celebrate that and celebrate the diversity but don't for any reason feel bad about it"

I asked him if I could give him a hug.  Yes, I initiated a hug.  And as I did I could see poor Scottie just finishing going through the second round of praying and catching since the first one just left him standing there.  Eventually the second prayer praying for him moved on and left him standing, the lone vertical figure in a sea of horizontal bodies. 

It was a little sad to see him standing there all alone.  We really were open to anything.  Ah well,  I was proud of him for being stretched and open.  I was proud of all of us.  And tonight is another night and I imagine we will go for it again.  We all intend to go through something called a "fire tunnel" (two long rows of people who are praying for you as you walk through it) although I might volunteer to be a catcher and content myself with the amply blessings of God I am enjoying in less sensational ways.

Finally, and reader if you have stuck with me this far I marvel at your focus and interest in these words and wish there was some way to reward you for your dilligence and at the same time gently remind you that you have a family which needs your love and attention and you cannot live your life vicariously through me slowly developing a palate for find coffee and introducing white shoes to your wardrobe (talking to you Stanley), so yes and finally:

A guy walks up to me at the church after overhearing we are from Portage.  He wants a ride home.  He is from a town about 4 hours north of Portage.  His wife will not drive to the airport in Winnipeg to get him, but will drive as far as Neepawa.  I mentioned our car was full and possibly there was a bus which would take him to Neepawa where his travel weary wife could pick him up.  He gravely assured me there were no buses to Neepawa.  I was not so sure about this but didn't have a chance to affirm that yes indeed there are buses which run from Wpg to Neepawa since hy told me what he was going to do if he couldn't get a ride with us.  Here it is, wait for it:

"I am thinking of chartering a plane from Winnipeg to Neepawa."

I said "pardon?"

I heard him right.  He didn't look like a billionaire, he actually looked like Asterix the Gaul. 

I didn't know what to say, so I suggested if he was going to do that he may as well save his wife the trip and fly directly to his hometown.  This appeared to be out of the question.  I was about to question why his wife wouldn't just drive a little farther and save him 10 000 dollars on a charter flight but Ray wandered over and saved me.

I think Ray may be driving someone to Neepawa tomorrow, unless Gloria can talk him out of it.

There you go, the stories of Day 3, but the real stories are between the lines of the bold paragraph above and I look forward to sharing them with many of you personally.

Comments

[Shane]

I drove back and forth to Neepawa several times for hockey a couple of weeks ago. The charter business is huge there so no one should mock.

Oh yeah "gimme an R! O! C K!! Whatcha got? Whatcha gonna do?"

[Pstanley]

My wife buys my wardrobe...really, I've never thought of it on my own. Makes me feel more like Keith Irwin than you actually. :o) look fw to chatting with you.

[MsM]

The Shriners wear Fez, not beanies.

[MsM]

I recommend the song "Shriner's convention" by Ray Stevens. A classic look at the Shriners