Jim Bakker Show - Is Your Church a Center of Refuge?
Aired: 2015-09-07
Duration: 04:16


=== Pastors As Centers of Refuge (03:33) ===

[00:00:00]  Absolutely.
[00:00:00]  Let me just say this.
[00:00:01]  Churches, whenever this stuff begins to happen, are going to be filled with people looking for answers.
[00:00:09]  And pastors need to become aware that they're supposed to be the centers of refuge.
[00:00:14]  And pastors need to wake up.
[00:00:16]  In fact, I really am asking pastors to be able to become centers of refuge during crisis.
[00:00:23]  They should also have clothing, food.
[00:00:25]  They should have these.
[00:00:26]  In fact, what you have here with our $2,500, if the churches would order that, they would be able to then service the people that would be coming to them.
[00:00:33]  Because after 9-1-1, that's exactly what happened.
[00:00:36]  People flocked to churches.
[00:00:38]  It was okay to talk about God.
[00:00:39]  And as people begin to see these fearful things happen, they will turn to God.
[00:00:43]  In fact, God brings judgment not to destroy people, but to bring them back to himself.
[00:00:49]  It's because he loves them enough.
[00:00:52]  God's called you, Dr. Williams, to warn the churches.
[00:00:57]  Absolutely.
[00:00:58]  And I'm trying to warn the whole body of Christ, but I'm so upset that I can't get the leaders, the shepherds, to get on board.
[00:01:10]  But we're seeing it starting to happen, but it could be late.
[00:01:14]  Absolutely.
[00:01:14]  In fact, one of the things I have in my book is a chapter on transformers.
[00:01:19]  What does that mean?
[00:01:21]  It sounds like something out of a Star Wars or something.
[00:01:23]  Right.
[00:01:24]  Well, actually, where that term came from, but it also was to be a transformer within your church.
[00:01:29]  I'm finding that there are people within our churches that are catching the vision.
[00:01:33]  Yes, and they're here right now.
[00:01:34]  Yes, they're catching the vision that something needs to be done.
[00:01:38]  And then sometimes their pastors, well, one, they may agree a little bit, but they don't really have the passion for it.
[00:01:44]  And I really felt even as I was writing that particular chapter on transformers, I said, are you called by God to be a transformer to make a difference?
[00:01:54]  Is that what God has called you to do?
[00:01:56]  And that's something to which I really am challenging people to become those transformers.
[00:02:01]  And I really felt as if God was speaking through that particular chapter.
[00:02:04]  If you feel like you're supposed to do it as a church, you go to your pastor and you say, I have this burden to get our church ready.
[00:02:11]  And then you can begin pulling together other people.
[00:02:14]  Sometimes you'll look at doctors.
[00:02:15]  Sometimes you'll look at nurses and other EMTs, other people like that to do this calling together.
[00:02:20]  I think it's going to be many unsung heroes.
[00:02:22]  It's going to be many people that don't have any medical background, any emergency preparedness background, but who have a passion.
[00:02:27]  Because if you're called of God, I say this, God doesn't just call the qualified, he qualifies the called.
[00:02:34]  And if you are called of God, he will qualify you.
[00:02:37]  He will equip you.
[00:02:39]  And that's exactly what I'm asking transformers within churches to take the leadership because pastors are overwhelmed.
[00:02:46]  They're too busy.
[00:02:47]  Their staff is overloaded.
[00:02:48]  They can't do it.
[00:02:49]  But if they will, you have to get the agreement of your pastor to be able to do it in the church.
[00:02:52]  But the church needs to identify who are the elderly, who are the needy people, who are the handicapped, who are the single-parent families, who are the people that don't have transportation, and identify them so that when disasters happen, the church can become the church and be the true church.
[00:03:07]  I had this one story of this one young man.
[00:03:10]  He told the story about his brother.
[00:03:12]  They came across this man that was a drunk in the alleyway in one of the inner cities.
[00:03:18]  And his brother picked the man up.

=== Transformers in Neighborhoods (00:57) ===

[00:03:20]  The man had been vomiting.
[00:03:21]  He smelled bad.
[00:03:22]  He was in old clothes.
[00:03:24]  And the brother watched him, his brother help him.
[00:03:27]  The man took him into a house, into a place where they would take care of the homeless, and he made sure he was taken care of.
[00:03:34]  And the man looked up at his brother and he said, Are you Jesus?
[00:03:39]  Are you Jesus?
[00:03:40]  Because you see, the only Jesus that many people are going to see is you and me.
[00:03:44]  That's right.
[00:03:44]  That's it.
[00:03:45]  And so people have to see us.
[00:03:46]  And so we need to become those transformers and start.
[00:03:49]  And also in our neighborhoods, that's one of the things I bring out in the book is about becoming a neighborhood facilitator, bringing your neighbors together and being able to use those as opportunities to share Jesus Christ.
[00:03:59]  I dare say that as we begin to see these difficult things happen on this earth, that neighborhoods are going to come together.
[00:04:06]  And you will have the answers for them because they'll say, what's happening?
[00:04:10]  What's going on?
[00:04:10]  But we as believers can then share our faith and bring people to Jesus Christ even in our own neighborhoods.