September 24, 1993



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The carnalage among Pentecostals is just as high as the carnalage of we

who are inferior because we haven't experienced the power that they

have. Which tells me that wasn't power; I don't want to dismiss it...

God needs to talk to us.. and that's where we are liable to proper

criticism. We have made our faith so rational, so clear cut, that it is

impregnable to threat.. what we have lost is intimacy, vibrancy, and deep

personal joy, that sort of develops a reckless abandon that doesn't

really matter what people think about us. A movement that becomes

self-conscious is a dying movement. And I don't care how large Dallas

Seminary gets, it's dying. It's dying when we become more concerned

about what others think than what God does. We will always exist, I

think, at least thru my life, but that's not the issue. The issue is not

self-existence, the issue is service. And when we get afraid of what

other schools are doing, we've lost the cutting edge. We're to listen to

what they're doing, steal all their good ideas, and make it better. Sam

Walton taught me that. Why is there no Ben Franklins and no J.J.

Newbery's? Because he stole their best ideas, and made it better..

that's what we need to be doing, stealing everything we can get

legally.. go to the best seminaries, even the worst ones, because

they're doing something right, and steal their best.. it's good advice..

but we've lost that entrepeneureal aggressiveness, recklessness, that we

need to have.. I'm not being demeaning. I think the Pentecostals in a

way stole it from us, and made us afraid, afraid of experience. And yet we

entered this thing through that gate, right? We're afraid that their

extremism will lead to uncontrollable behavior, so we reject behavior.

We have to trust the Lord to build his church, I think.. I don't want to

linger on it...



Pentecostalism is like waves, that promise to raise you higher.. [it]

sweeps through Christianity.. the wave to improve methodism is Holiness,

the wave to improve Holiness is Classical Pentecostalism, same

intimidation, same promise of fruit.. and then the next wave is

Charismatic, that sweeps the Classical guys down to inferiority, and

now the current wave is Vineyard, they just keep rolling it.. good

intimidation.. because they have in voice publically what they don't

have in private, what we don't see, they don't do any better than we do;

depravity is depravity whether you believe it or not, [it's] still

there.