Washington, DC International Christian Church

On Sunday evenings, many of the evangelists and women’s ministry leaders in the SoldOut Movement graciously send me their “good news” for the week.  On Monday mornings, I gather the most exciting of the reports and send them out to all of our leaders around the world, accompanied by some heartfelt admonitions for the movement.  This keeps us connected and encouraged by the Spirit of God working in our family of churches.  The following is this past week’s “Good News Email!”  KM

Dear All,

Greetings from the City of Angels Church!  Given the devastation to the island nation of Haiti by a 7.0 earthquake, the Central Leadership Council is proclaiming Friday, January 22, 2010 as a Day of Prayer & Fasting for all of the congregations of the SoldOut Movement.  The BBC estimated 200,000 deaths, and perhaps even more remain trapped alive under the debris, crying out for help.  MERCYworldwide is donating funds to the Haitian families of disciples in our movement. Sadly, one of our brothers in DC lost his cousin in the quake.  Let us resolve to have an even greater urgency to preach the Word, as this catastrophe parallels the condition of the “spiritual world” that has been shook and devastated by Satan and his demons; many are trapped in their sin and circumstances, and crying out for help.  We must rise up and be the answer to their prayers.

DJ Comisford of NYC and Carlos Mejia of Washington DC combine good news from both churches and share, “The DC Church, Empire City Church and the new Charlotte International Christian Church had an amazing Winter Workshop in DC!  The theme was I Am With You. Chris and Theresa Broom came down from Chicago and preached powerfully about how God is working in His new movement.  Chris challenged the Bible Talk Leaders on Friday night to imitate God’s heart for the lost, the weak and the lukewarm.  On Saturday during the Men’s Program, Mike Underhill and Dustin Miller from New York, as well as Ken Chin and Carlos from DC, preached on Righteousness, Humility, Sacrifice and Evangelism.  On the women’s side, Theresa Broom, Lucy Mejia and Cheryl Chin from DC, and Kacie Comisford and Amanda Miller from New York, preached on the same subjects.  Sunday morning, the fellowship was electric as 135 people gathered to worship!  Bill Hamilton, leader of the Charlotte Remnant Group, led a heart-moving communion about his decision to join God’s new movement and DJ preached the message, God is With Us. Afterwards, we celebrated two baptisms from the DC Church, Mackensie – DC’s first teen – and Johweyeh, who studied the Bible in just seven days!  The workshop melded the hearts of the disciples from DC, NYC and Charlotte together and we are ready for 2010 because God Is With Us!”

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Once again, we are in the midst of the holiday season. ‘Tis the season to be jolly, to deck the halls, to sing Christmas carols, to give and receive gifts. ‘Tis the season most loved by merchants. With the proverbial dollar signs in their eyes, these captains of industry profit from the dreams of children, lovingly catered to by doting parents. Commercials play right into the desires of women looking to impress that special someone with the latest stunning fashion. And then, there are those well-deserved cutting-edge, high-tech stereos and big screen TV’s earned and purchased by over-worked husbands, slaves to gruelling 12-hour days at the office. And to placate the wives who have suffered through many dinners-for-one, exquisite pieces of jewelry are bought, hopefully impressive enough to make them forget the countless lonely evenings. The baby Jesus was given gifts of gold, incense and myrrh at his birth by the Magi from the east (Matthew 2:11). The adult Jesus, the son of God, gave the ultimate gift, the opportunity for eternal life to those who would become his disciples. To do this, he lay down his own life on the cross (John 15:13; 1 John 3:16). What greater gift can we give to others than the “laying down” of our own life? Self-denial purposed to teach the lost the good news, to disciple growth in spiritual character, to inspire married couples to true, scriptural marital bliss and to nurture younger disciples on to maturity. These gifts do not perish, spoil, or fade. They have eternal impact! My wife Cheryl and I are truly grateful for the gifts of friendship and discipleship so warmly extended to us by Andrew & Patrique Smellie. We still remember our first encounter with this inspiring couple. It was late one evening, when Andrew & Patrique on their way to DC for a retreat, drove over an hour out of their way to meet with us at our home in Magnolia, Delaware. We were grateful for the visit and the time spent eating, talking, and praying. This encounter made an incredible impact on our lives as Andrew and Patrique lovingly yet boldly called us to leave our home and move to DC to join the Washington, DC International Christian Church. So obvious was our need for discipleship and fellowship with unified, sold-out disciples! Our hearts recognized that the Smellies were sent by God to rescue us. How could we not accept the challenge to move? It was, by no means, an easy decision to make. We owned a home and Cheryl had within the previous two years, opened her own pediatric practice. Our two sons were comfortable with their schools, our older son Kyle in an excellent special-needs program for autism, our younger son Kevyn also excelling in school. In addition, our boys lived a mere eight minutes away from their best friends and I was part of a thriving dental practice on the Eastern Shore, over two hours away from DC! Read the rest of this entry »

“If you hear it said about one of the towns the Lord your God is giving you to live in that wicked men have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ (gods you have not known), then you must inquire, probe, and investigate it thoroughly.  And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town.   Destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock.  Gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God.   It is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt.” – Deuteronomy 13:12-16

“Investigate” – (def-verb): to search out and examine the particulars of in an attempt to learn the facts about something hidden, unique, or complex, esp. in an attempt to find a motive, cause, or culprit

In a world of misinformation and half-truths, it may be disheartening to realize that this type of dereliction can even occur in the church of God.  While God’s Word is perfect, His people are not.  As the Scriptures state, “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.” (Proverbs 12:19).  As the old adage goes, “There’s what people hear…there’s what people believe…and then there’s the truth.” Confusion exists because the fiction that is told could initially sound more plausible or understandable than the truth!  Ultimately, the truth will persevere, but it may be hidden or masked by deceitful communicators, even within the religious establishment.  To avoid being naïve, we must be noble enough to “probe, inquire and investigate” this truth so we can expose deceitful motives and attain accurate information.  While we should all be grateful that we are not under the Old Testament standard to “put to the sword” physically because of our sin, we are called by Jesus to admonish other disciples to repent by using the “sword of (Jesus’) mouth” – the Word of God! (Revelation 2:16)  When applied to a religious fellowship, if the leadership of the church does not want to repent, then we must preserve the truth by obeying Jesus’ call of pouring “new wine into new wineskins” (Matthew 9:16-17) – starting new churches to protect the lives of those who are trying to live righteously from being “ruined.” As disciples of Jesus it is our responsibility to “discern what is best” in our “life and doctrine,” so we can live a life that glorifies our Lord! (1 Timothy 4:16, Philippians 1:9-11)

It is interesting to notice that although Jesus communicated blatant truths to his disciples, they were too dull to understand what he meant and too afraid to ask (Mark 9:31-32).  I am sure that if we were to walk with Jesus during this time we might occasionally fall into the same trap!  Unlike the other apostles, Peter had the occasional boldness and curiosity to ask tough questions of Jesus instead of giving into fear (Matthew 15:1-20).  Jesus often said things that offended the religious establishment at the time, yet instead of asking why Jesus said what he did, His disciples were more concerned about how those true statements affected the religious establishment’s feelings!  While Jesus may have rebuked them for their dullness, he always took the time to answer their questions with a thorough explanation.  Likewise, as disciples of Jesus we must also be willing to investigate and determine the facts behind reports of error and controversy in order to ascertain the truth.
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