A Journey To Christ As Life Dr. John Woodward
JULY 2014
IOM America IFEL Member, Adviser & Friend I would like to introduce to you a precious friend and adviser: Dr. John Woodward—I call him my beloved Jonathan. He is one of the most faithful teachers, theologians and disciplers of the Exchanged Life that I know and I would be honored if you would take a few minutes and read his story. Enjoy— SR Phinney I am thankful to have been raised in a Christian home. My father's parents attended Bloomfield Baptist Church in New Jersey and my earliest church memories are based there; I received Christ as my personal Savior at about the age of seven. My Journey to Christ as Lord When I was thirteen my family moved from New Jersey to northeast Atlanta Georgia. My parents' search for a Bible teaching church led us to First Alliance Church. There we settled in and benefited from biblical preaching, Christian education, and pastoral care. I enjoyed the youth group and was challenged by two brothers: Paul and Steve Varner. Their mother became a friend and discipler of my mother and Steve led a Bible study in our neighborhood. Meanwhile, I was mostly interested in high school band and off-road motorcycling. My spiritual growth rarely went beyond church activities until I became involved with Campus Crusades' Student Life Ministry. At a special student event in Atlanta I was challenged by Josh McDowell. Another catalyst for discipleship was Expo 72 in Fort Worth, Texas. There were inspiring meetings in the stadium with Billy Graham and relevant small group discussions. Another influential speaker in my senior year of high school was Dan DeHaan. He had a Bible study for college age young people in metro Atlanta that drew a couple of hundred a week. Dan exhibited a passion for God and an contagious commitment to His Word. Although I was motivated by these spiritual events, I was preoccupied with school, sports, and dating. My parents saw that I needed some solid discipleship, so they sponsored my freshman year at Florida Bible College. During that year at FBC I studied the Bible for the first time. The classes required daily Scripture memory which fueled my spiritual life with truth. Whereas I had wrestled with some doubts about the reliability of the Bible and defensibility of the faith, these concerns were resolved as I eagerly learned about Christian evidences.
In one of the college meetings a stirring message was given on the importance of full commitment to the Lord. An invitation was given to stand up if you wanted God to use your life to reach people with the gospel. I stood up with a number of my classmates as a gesture of full commitment. Little did I know then how God would honor that prayer of surrender. After completing that year at Florida Bible College, I returned to Atlanta and got a job as an ironworker. In July I heard that Dr. Mark Cambron from the Florida Bible College speak at a church in the area. When I attended the service a young lady from the college informed me that Internationals Singers and orchestra needed a trumpet player for their '74-'75 tour. The news sent a wave of excitement through me! After I auditioned for this group in Pennsylvania, the leaders invited me join the Internationals. That nine month commitment eventually extended to two years of ministry in the US, Canada, and Europe. During this tour I met my wife-to-be, Linda, who joined the group as a singer. Eventually I was asked to present the brief evangelistic message in the concerts. This motivated my personal growth and gave me invaluable preaching and witnessing experience. God honored His Word and people received Christ through the group's ministry. After the Internationals, I enrolled in Northeastern Bible College in Essex Fells, New Jersey. By God's grace and much work I completed the four year degree in three (one of which was at FBC). Linda and I married August 26, 1978. We made our first home in Hatfield, PA and I earned an M.Div. at Biblical Theological Seminary. Those were good years of growing as a couple, making new church friends, and studying. During my northern years at college and seminary the atmosphere was academic and the sanctification model was dichotomist and Reformed. Although I met special friends who loved the Lord and learned from godly teachers and chapel services, academic ministry training tended to build up the mind rather that change the heart. After graduation from Biblical, our first child, Laura, was born. When she was about nine months old we moved to Montreal, Quebec where I accepted a call as associate pastor at Peoples Church. We ministered there for seven special years, during which our son, Brad, and daughter, Sarah, were born. My Journey to Christ as Life In 1985 I went on a short-term mission trip to Iryan Jaya with one of the church's career missionaries--Bill Hekman. God had used him and his wife, Verena, to reach a stone age tribe there in the 1960s. (The popular missions book and film, Peace Child, by Don Richardson occurred in a similar area of this primitive island). As we ministered together, I learned that Bill had come to the end of his resources at this dangerous, hostile place. Then he encountered the dynamic teaching of the Exchanged Life through the ministry of Ian Thomas of Capernwray/ Torchbearers Missionary Fellowship. As he recognized the potential of radically abiding abiding in Christ, he head a breakthrough that changed the tone and scope of his ministry. In the 1980's Bill was based in California and directed the Christian Leaders' Association. Bill's testimony reminded me of a book I had read while in the Internationals: Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret. That missionary also had a wonderful renewal through discovering the personal significance of identification with Christ. Both of these leaders echoed Paul's testimony: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Although I had been blessed by Taylor's biography, it had faded from memory. As God was impressing this reality in my heart, Ken Needham came over from England to give a series of messages at Peoples Church. Looking back at his teaching, I now recognize it as the Capernwray perspective of how to live abundantly by letting Christ live in and through us. Ken shared how Christ modeled this attitude of surrender and trust by totally relying on the Father's plans and the Holy Spirit's empowerment. Christ was the Son of Man as well as the Son of God. Jesus testified, “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30). As He modeled dependence on the Holy Spirit, how much more did I need to give up on my perceived self-sufficiency and depend on Christ to Live His life through me! As these discoveries were sinking in, I realized that I needed a way to disciple and counsel struggling believers whereby they could experience this abundant life too. Success in pastoral counseling had been the exception, not the rule. For example, one time a couple with chronic problems had a full blown argument in my office; I felt intimidated and powerless to help them. Later they divorced and ended up in different countries. Around 1986 I was browsing in a used book store and found Handbook to Happiness, by Charles Solomon. The 2
book's message and diagrams further clarified the victorious life message. Although I had been somewhat convinced of the dichotomy of man (with the spirit not distinct from the soul), this presentation of trichotomy had a ring of truth about it. When I read chapter eight, I was impressed by the testimonies of life transformation of men and women who were helped by this counseling ministry. I started to connect the dots and notice how Solomon was clarifying and personally integrating the Exchanged Life into a discipleship/counseling model. The Lord illumined to me the witness of Taylor, Hekman, and Needham through the Handbook's presentation of the Christ-Life. Not long after reading Handbook, a pastor's 21 year old daughter announced at prayer meeting that she was intending to quit her job the next day. She was stressed out and felt she couldn't continue there. After the meeting I invited her to meet with me for a few minutes. For the first time I presented the "wheel diagrams" in Handbook, explained the root problem, and pointed her to the abiding life. She replied. "I see it now. It's not really about the job. I need to let Christ be my source of living." This precious sister went on to learn more of the Christ-life and now has a precious testimony as a wife and mother. I then phoned my dad and stepmom in Georgia, telling about my interest in the message and approach contained in Handbook to Happiness. I was surprised to hear Dad say, "We know the Solomons; they've been in our home!" Dad testified of how this teaching had also been helping him. He had attended a three day training event at the Atlanta office of GFI. In 1987 I went on a short-term mission trip to India. Teaching at New Delhi Bible Institute, giving the sermons with a music group on a two week tour, and teaching pastors at a conference in Pangaluru all impressed on my heart the need for Christ-centered discipleship. I witnessed the intense spirituality of the people of that great subcontinent. I was convicted. As believers we have the Truth, but so often it is not expressed with the spirituality and dedication I glimpsed in India. After seven years of ministry in Montreal, our family moved to Ontario. I served as senior pastor of Winona Gospel Church church, north of Niagara Falls. I used the GFI materials in pastoral counseling. With the truth of identification with Christ made central, I saw depressed and defeated believers gain personal victory. I was able to go from offering care to also offering cure. Two of the sisters continued to grow and be equipped in sharing Christ as Life. For years now they have shared this message personally, in small groups, and special womens' events. After five years as pastor of a traditional evangelical church, the Lord impressed on me the need to go beyond management to leadership. Society had been changing, but church structures rarely adapted. There was an increasingly obvious need to put "new wine into new wineskins." After a bumpy start, a pilot small group began which eventually grew to four groups. During the challenge of this ministry transition, I experienced some open opposition and criticism. The tension of that time made a summer vacation to South Carolina a much-needed one. On the trip we attended a church that presented the musical "God with Us." The vibrant praise and worship got my eyes back on Christ as my life. Leadership became a bit easier as I sought to facilitate without trying to control. While on a trip through Ontario in 1996, Chuck and Sue Solomon stopped by our home. He shared more of the GFI message and ministry. They invited Linda and me to join them in Tennessee for the training week. It was a good experience for us. Turning 40, I was seeking the Lord on how to focus my calling and ministry for the next leg of my journey. Sensing the need to sharpen some research, writing, and ministry skills, I enrolled in the Doctor of Ministry program at Luther Rice Seminary. The school features an Exchanged Life approach in their Discipleship Counseling department, so it would expand on what I was learning through GFI. Meanwhile, our close friends, Lauren and Dorothy Redinger, started the Canadian branch of Christian Salvage Mission. (This ministry collects, sorts, and then ships used Christian literature to needy ministries in other nations.) One of the fringe benefits of visiting the Redingers was the opportunity to find some classic deeper life books. As I read Watchman Nee, Andrew Murray, Ian Thomas, Jessie Penn Lewis, and others, the work of the cross continued to deepen in my life. With the renewed commitment to exchanged life counseling, God gave me additional opportunities to minister to hurting people. One of these was Tim, a blue collar worker in his 30's whose marriage was falling apart. Tim had "burned out" on Christian service and was languishing in his relation to God and his family. Through the counseling process, Tim repented of his misdirection and joyfully discovered the truths of identification with Christ. An avid reader, Tim welcomed Christ-centered devotional and counseling literature. We went through the freedom in Christ process and Editorial Comments: Kathy Hill, CO editor@iomamerica.org Entire content of this publication is under Š supervision of IOM America 2014 Reproduction permitted when entire publication remains intact. Digital view or copies can be obtained online at: click here All Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Š Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963,1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
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he was released from major hurts and strongholds from his dysfunctional upbringing. In the years since then, Tim has been trained by GFI and Canada's Crossways to Life. He has led many others into identification with Christ through his weekly home Bible studies and one-to-one counseling. Being a musician, he has composed a number of songs that convey the joys of grace and abiding in Christ. As God blessed the Christ-centered pastoral counseling, Charles Solomon invited me to come to Tennessee and teach some of the material at the GFI training week. Then in 2000 Charles invited me to join him on two trips to Bucharest, Romania. There we co-taught the conference and interacted with an influential church and printing ministry. During these trips, Charles and I become close friends, and discerned that there was good potential for serving together full time. In the spring of 2001, I accepted the call to GFI as Director of Counseling and Training. As Paul declared, "And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:4-6). This sanctification by grace message is as old as the Bible and as relevant as Spirituotherapy demonstrates. As we become competent to counsel in a "being in order to do" method, we can expect God to transform lives as we offer discipleship for the desperate.
LAW AND LOVE INDISTINGUISHED By Jerry Bridges Friend & Mentor to Dr. Phinney For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Galatians 5;14 Some people maintain that the "law of love" has replaced even the moral commands of Jesus and that our only rule is to "love your neighbor as yourself." They quote Paul: "The one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, 'you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:8-10). Some people understand Paul to say that the New Testament principle of love has replaced the Old Testament principle of law. Whereas the Jewish nation in the Old Testament lived under a number of specific moral laws, the church in the New Testament has "come of age" and now lives by the higher principle of love. Since love must be voluntary and cannot be compelled, so the thinking goes, love and law are mutually exclusive. But if we realize the moral law is a transcript—a written reproduction—of the moral character of God and that "God is love" (1 John 4:8), we see that we cannot distinguish between law and love. Both express the character of God. They're two sides of the same coin. For example, Paul said in Romans 13:10, "love does no wrong to its neighbor" (NIV). If we didn't also have the commandments (which Paul quoted in verse 9) against such things as adultery, stealing, and murder, how would we know what it means to harm one's neighbor? Love provides the motive for obeying the commands of the law, but the law provides specific direction for exercising love. (Excerpt taken from Transforming Grace)
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