1.. Kenneth's health a big let down
2.. Pastor 'preys on', rather than 'prays over' Flock
3.. Correct Destiny for Brian?
4.. Philip Powell from the 2004 UK Tour

1...Kenneth's health a big let down

Kenneth Copeland - Postponement of Australia-Asia-Pacific Meetings - 2004

http://www.kcm.org.au as at 21 Sept 2004

Dear Partners and Friends

Much to my deep regret I must postpone our meetings in Australia, Singapore, Korea and Hawaii.

A few days ago I injured my back badly enough that even though my healing has already started, so many hours of flying would be too much.

Let's face it. I let this situation in my back go on for too long. However, the Lord has forgiven me and I'm on my way back to full strength.

Please forgive me if I've caused you any inconvenience whatsoever. Believe me, postponing these meetings is the last thing I wanted to do. As you forgive me, please pray and believe with me for the complete restoration of my lower back area.

We will reschedule these meetings just as soon as we can and I will come with a testimony of great victory.

Thank you so very much for believing with me.

JESUS IS LORD!

Kenneth Copeland

'Pastor' banned after ripping off parishioners
By Darrell Giles
05sep04
A BRISBANE real estate agent who claimed to be a pastor and preyed on vulnerable members of his church has been barred from the property industry.

Queensland Fair Trading Minister Margaret Keech said John Gunther, 50, had deliberately set out to deceive trusting congregation members by selling them homes at hugely inflated prices.

Gunther made about $275,000 profit on the sale of eight properties, while his victims were left with big mortgages – and, in the case of two families, had their homes repossessed when they could not make repayments.

Queensland's Commercial and Consumer Tribunal put a lifetime real estate ban on Gunther, effective from this week, and fined him $15,000.

The Office of Fair Trading went to the Supreme Court on Friday in a bid to get compensation for his victims, who were mostly Pacific Islanders with little command of English. Evidence was presented to the tribunal that Gunther, through his company, would take an option to buy homes at the lower end of the market in Logan and Brisbane southside suburbs.

He targeted members of the Garden City Christian Church who had recently arrived in Australia.

One victim, Emele Naea, of Samoa, bought a house in Kingston from Gunther for $141,500. He thought he had paid $113,500 – while the house was later valued at only $85,000.

"I am not going to get any money if I sell the place. I have lost everything if I move out," the married father of two said.

Mr Naea told the tribunal he had "never seen a contract like this before and did not know what to look for in the contract".

Another victim described Gunther as a "truth man" after being told he was a minister of the church. Only then did he sign the contract – buying a house for $125,500 that was worth only $65,000.

The tribunal said "the motive was greed" and there had been no remorse shown.

Mrs Keech said Gunther's behaviour was "unconscionable in every meaning of the term".

Gunther's daughter Judith and Warren McLaren – employees of his company Talitha Cumi – were disqualified from holding a real estate licence for one and two years respectively, and fined $1500 and $3000.

Gunther declined to comment on the tribunal finding.

Garden City Christian Church senior pastor Bruce Hills said Gunther was never a qualified minister or pastor with the church, but had performed some duties in the community on behalf of the church.
Queensland Newspapers

Enough Is Enough???

By James Jacob Prasch August 2004

Some years ago in the company of the late evangelist Barry Smith I spoke at the predominantly Maori. church of Brian Tamaki , in Rotorua, NZ .
At that time I warned against going the way of the American and South African tele-evangelist money preachers.
My warnings were needless to say unheeded. Now Brian Tamaki has imitated Australia 's Andrew Evans and John Lewis in seeking political office in a down under version of American tele- evangelist and ecumenical false prophet and scandal guru Pat Robertson.
No one doubts Christians should be salt and light and bring a moral influence to government and stand on moral issues such as abortion and same sex marriage. Politics however cannot change society in a godly direction. Only the gospel can.
But to gain votes from other religions, the gospel must be politically compromised. This has become so bad that former Evangelicals like J I Packer and Chuck Colson endorsed Roman Catholic Peter Kreeft's book 'Ecumenical Jihad' calling for ecumenical union not only with Rome, but with Islam to morally redeem society. In America this has not worked well. Billy Graham, by his own admission, discredited himself when he endorsed Nixon, only for the corruption of Nixon to come to light in the Watergate scandal.
The false prophetic predictions of a political nature combined with the African business venture scandal that nearly saw Robertson indicted and his sale of a Christian broadcasting ministry which was begun with the contributions of 700 Christians, to Rupert Murdoch for $100 million pocketed by Robertson and his son has not helped either the Christian church or America . To gain political momentum and support, the gospel must be compromised. Thus Robertson signed Chuck Colson's 'Evangelicals and Catholics Together' betrayal (effectively agreeing not to evangelise Roman Catholics). Bush/Reagan supporter Jerry Falwell went even further, calling Korean cult leader and convicted felon, Sun Yung Moon, an "Unsung hero" despite Moon claiming to be 'Lord of The Second Advent" (the returned Christ)and his late wife as 'The Holy Spirit'. Only backslidden false prophets pay homage to anti christs.

On the political left, Rev. Jesse Jackson was caught using funds raised for his charity 'Rainbow Coalition" to help poor blacks to pay a lucrative salary to the mother of the child he secretly sired out of wedlock in an adulterous relationship. Not much of an example and role model to Black American youth with two out of three American Blacks now being born out of wedlock.  On the political left similarly, in an interview in the presence of thousands of Evangelical pastors, Bill Hybels failed to challenge then president Bill Clinton over Clinton's twice vetoing the congressional ban on partial birth abortion. After September 11th, Hybels invited a Moslem cleric to his pulpit to explain Islam.

Back on the political right, George Bush, whose administration is beholden to oil interests, calls  Saudi Arabia and the Wahab regime of The House of Saud that beheads Christians and funds the Islamic extremism that breeds support for terror ' our friends", and has called for Israel to give up some of its God given land in order to placate the Saudi butchers at the behest of the oil conglomerates, and calls Islam 'a religion of peace' and says 'allah is the same God as the one worshipped by Christians and Jews.

We live in an age of political prostitution of the church
This has been amplified by the growth of the unbiblical doctrines of post millennial dominion theology and calvinistic reconstructionism. Jesus' kingdom is not of this world.
The ugly history of radical unionist too often politics unable to distinguish between hatred of Catholicism and hatred of Catholics is the very legacy  of Northern Irish political protestantism. 
This trend now has arrived in Australia and New Zealand .

While I do respect Australia Prime Minister John Howard, Australian Politicians are seeking the endorsement of money preacher Brian Houston of the Hill Song hype artistry. As Andrew Evans and John Lewis go from being pulpit politicians to just plain politicians, we must ask how such men can be trusted or respected as capable of restoring integrity to government when they failed to uphold integrity in the church with their promulgation of money preachers and deceptions such as the Toronto con? Brian Tamaki leads an August 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH' march on New Zealand's capital opposing same sex marriage, but if he believes in the sanctity of marriage, how does he justify his bringing Elim's serial adulterer and Toronto Experience promoter, Ian Bilby (who is divorced and now with a new wife) into ministry again?

The bible states The Lord's ministers are to be above reproach - not serial adulterers.
If Bilby really repented, why did he remarry unbiblically and why , since he is not above public reproach, stay out of ministry?
Why does Brian Tamaki defy God's standards in the church but think he can make a difference in upholding morality in the political spectrum.
Moriel urges prayer for our political leaders and would like to see Christians bringing a moral influence into government, but not at the expense of its first mission which is to evangelise and make disciples.
Moreover, how can the Evangelical church be an instrument of bringing righteousness into government when its own leaders with these political ambitions not only tolerate, but propagate unrighteousness in what is suppose to be The Body of Christ?
In other words, looking at the actions of men like Andrew Evans and Brian Tamaki: 'Is it about righteousness or is it about using naive and undiscerning Christians to get political power"?
Indeed: "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"!

Report from Philip in the UK [ Amended -Ed ]

Dearest Saints:

It is 5:30 p.m. Tuesday October 19 [2004] and rather bleak outside looking over the northern Yorkshire Moors. I arrived at Heathrow one week ago today after 30 hours of travel from our home in Brisbane. It was a long "trek"! Basil Howe, an Irishman who lives in Birmingham and who had offered to drive me around Britain met me at around 7.30 a.m. Less than an hour later we were safely installed in the rather large and very comfortable home of Tony and Margaret Brown at Three Miles Cross near Reading. Tony is an elder at the South of Reading Christian Fellowship in an English village, which as the name suggests is three miles from Reading and at a Cross Roads that has historic significance from the time of horse drawn carriages.

My Friday meeting scheduled for London was cancelled so Basil decided to motor straight back to his home on Thursday night after the meeting at Stroud Green, London with Roger Winter-Smith, who is a lawyer who pastors an Assembly of God Church. We reached their home in Birmingham just after mid-night. Both Basil and I had very bad stomach upsets which we thought was due to something we ate, but later discovered was a virus that affected a number of people. It was a sort of 24 hour wonder, if you can call it that.

ARRIVING AT HEATHROW
I came through customs and collected my luggage quicker than usual and had a bit of a wait before Basil arrived. I slept off on and on during odd hours due to jet lag on Tuesday at the Brown's place and am still a bit out of kilter. Due to my youthfulness it's not quite as easy to adjust. We left Reading about 1 a.m. for Bournemouth on Wednesday. The organisers - Mike and Sandra McDonagh had booked us into a guest house for bed and breakfast where we arrived at about 3 p.m. so I grabbed a bit of shut eye and was ready the meeting about 6:30 p.m. There were about 30 or so folks in the meeting. I preached on "UNASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL" and had a great time. After the service a lady introduced herself as my cousin. She and her husband came to hear me preach. I didn't recognise her as I think we may have met only once many years ago. Her husband is a New Zealander whom I had never met before. The meeting was responsive and appreciative. They sang some very good new "songs" and some old ones - all hymn style with a lot of substance. I'll try to get hold of the music and words especially of one of them which described the modern climate and the need for us to turn to God in repentance. We vacated the hired school hall at 10 p.m. and dropped into bed after a short drive to the guest house.
Graham Hughes who looks after CWM & CETF in UK came all the way from London for the meeting at Bournemouth and to spend an hour or so with me on the Thursday discussing finances which are not good, though as I travel our message of the need to contribute to costs is getting across I think. We are not in the red but pretty close to the bone and things will need to change if we are to continue printing and mailing the magazine here in UK. Graham is a great chap to have on board. He provided me with a detailed break-down of finances. I am waiting to talk to Paul Moore who arranges the printing and mailing to see what he may have in mind about the future of the magazine in UK. All that I spoke to at Whitby feel that CETF should definitely continue in UK, so we will look to the Lord to provide through His people.

BOURNEMOUTH TO BIRMINGHAM - BACK TO READING:
We got away from Bournemouth about 11.30 a.m. and were in London well ahead of schedule and only had a bit of difficulty at the end of the journey driving down the narrow streets of London trying to locate the meeting place at Stroud Green. London is definitely a place to avoid if you can. We had time for a meal which cost more than we had hoped, but not too bad. I am sure we could have done better had we known the area. We got to the street where the "Traditional Pentecostal Church" meets in Stroud Green about 5 p.m. at which time Basil was hit with the tummy trouble. Mine had fortunately hit me earlier at the eating place where there were very good bath-room facilities which I made great use of. Poor Basil had to search out a nearby Pub, which he did while I sat musing in the car. We waited for the two and half hours for the small congregation to gather. Roger and his wife arrived only about five minutes before the start of the meeting by which time two other folks were waiting outside closed doors. Roger told me that he is presently acting for a group of Christian Schools which are in conflict with the governmental law against corporal punishment of any kind. The Christian School Association is taking the matter to the House of Lords but he thinks they have little chance of succeeding. Roger & Cheryl Winter-Smith's son-in-law instructs barristers and there at least two other barristers in the Stroud Green Assembly; like obviously attracts like. This is one of three AoG churches that I am scheduled to speak at on this tour. All of them are obviously on the fringe or they would not have me as a speaker. I guess there were probably about 20 people - may be less - in the meeting. Appropriately I spoke on "LITTLE IS MUCH". The message appeared to be appreciated. One of the barrister's named Mark was a member at Holy Trinity Brompton before Nicky Gumbel launched his Alpha and HTB went into Toronto. He told them that Toronto was false and warned them then left. He is a very fine young man and is now an elder at the Fellowship. He led the early morning (7 a.m.) prayer sessions at Whitby.
On Saturday October 16 I spoke three times from Colossians, with tea and lunch breaks. Alan Nunn the brother who runs the Berean Fellowship and is the main organiser of Whitby is a former professional wrestler in his unconverted days and a "BIG" man. He has agreed to write his testimony for a future CETF. Sadly the Berean Fellowship has experienced a split. Last time I spoke to some 80 or so people. This time there were only about 15 present and two of them were not part of the fellowship but came as a result of receiving the latest CETF which listed my meetings. Unfortunately CETF was delayed in UK so folks had only just received it a few days before I arrived.
After the Saturday seminars in Droitwich (not far from Birmingham) we drove to Reading for the night and the Sunday services which were very good and well attended. They said Sunday a.m. was the biggest they had had since they built and opened their new Church building. Practically all the seats were taken - 120 plus. The Lord helped me at both meetings after which we drove back to Birmingham for a night's rest before making our way to Whitby in north Yorkshire - about four and a half hours drive including break for a cuppa and a light bite to eat.

WHITBY - CONFERENCE:
The roads seem less congested than last time we were in UK. I think this is due to the fact that the weather is better on the whole. Also they seem to have installed more motor-ways, which now link the entire country - more or less. I am writing this part of the report at my paternal uncle's home in Louth in Lincolnshire. This part of the country is still some what isolated and cut off from the main north-south motor-ways as is the area where we will be Wednesday and Thursday next week - Cambridge and Ipswich.
The Conference went very well. I spoke four times - twice on Tuesday and twice on Wednesday. We sensed that the Lord helped us as I shared on Growing in Grace; the Grace of Life; Grace to Pray; and Grace & Spiritual Warfare. The first speaker was Roger Winter-Smith who highlighted the need to "UNDERSTAND" based on the question of Jesus to the disciples - HAVE YOU UNDERSTOOD ALL THESE THINGS? It was a thought provoking message. A friend from way back named Brian Day brought two messages and Jacob Prasch arrived for three sessions on Thursday. Basil and I left at lunch-time on Thursday to spend some time with my uncle and aunt in Louth.
Tomorrow we set off for South Wales. En route to Swansea where I am scheduled to preach on Sunday morning. I hope to catch up with my father's sister who is now in her mid 80s and confined to a nursing home in Chepstow. On Sunday night I am preaching in another part of South Wales at the Newbridge Assembly of God before driving back to Birmingham for a night's stop. Then we are more or less into the final week with an extra meeting on the Monday at Morecambe. Actually I have meetings every day then until I catch my plane God Willing on Wednesday November 3 to return via Tokyo to Brisbane arriving on Friday November 5.

May the Lord bless you all.

Did not appear in a CWM publication Issue