1984-1985
In 1984 I resigned my position as senior pastor of the Loveland Evangelical Free Church, in order to accept a one-year intern pastor position in a large Denver church that was part of a new, innovative denomination called Vineyard Christian Fellowship. After resigning my church, however, the intern pastor offer evaporated because the current intern (Pastor Fred, himself a former Evangelical Free church pastor whom I knew) decided to stay in this position for another year. Remaining in Loveland instead of moving back to Denver, Sharon and I and our two sons then became involved in a two year-old Vineyard church plant 7 miles north of Loveland in Fort Collins. To earn money, I went back to painting houses. Sharon continued to be a stay-at-home mom for our 5 and 7 year-old sons. We were struggling financially at this point. Three months later, another pastor in town told me that our local 100-bed Lutheran hospital was looking to hire its first staff chaplain, half-time. My application arrived after they had finished interviewing their eleven candidates. I was hired after two interviews. To this day I thank God for the gift of that hospital ministry, which lasted three years until I returned to full-time pastoring. God’s provision of that very meaningful hospital job reinforced what I had been learning by experience since 1971: God is real! Not only did it provide for our financial need, but it opened a door to healthcare chaplaincy that has been very meaningful and fulfilling for me since then—hospital and hospice chaplaincy started for me by that hospital chaplain ministry At that Loveland, Colorado hospital I met about 20 new patients a day, then spent time with patients and their families in the ER, the ICU, and on all the floors. I prayed for all patients and families who were receptive. It was very meaningful ministry for me.
I experienced the potential healing power of prayer at this hospital in 1985. One summer day, a 76 year-old community leader, who was also a leader in his local Methodist church, had a massive heart attack in the middle of a local golf course. By the time paramedics got him to our hospital, he appeared to have brain damage from oxygen deprivation and was on life support machinery. I visited him and his family daily, praying with them for him. After about a week, he was taken off life support because all hope of healing appeared to be gone. Surprising his family and the doctors, he didn’t die. He remained suspended between life and death for a few days. Everybody was puzzled, including the doctors. One day I walked into his room. No family was present. I looked at him, lying unresponsive with his eyes closed. Suddenly and unexpectedly, an unction on how to pray for him came over me. Without forethought, I put my hand on his chest and prayed aloud based on that unction , “Spirit of death, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ! Get off him and leave!” His eyes immediately opened for the first time since the heart attack, and he spoke—also a first since the heart attack. After brief conversation, I prayed again for him, left the room, found a nurse down the hall and said, “Mr. ____ is awake.” Surprised, she ran to the room, then called his doctor. The patient went home three days later, after receiving occupational therapy, without any lingering brain damage. The doctors’ charting was typical of everybody’s surprise for this patient’s outcome. I knew that what happened wasn’t about me, and I thanked God for again showing me that he is real and for giving me great prayer directive for him followed by personal fulfillment for him and me!
That experience of God’s healing power was consistent with the belief of our new denomination, Vineyard Christian Fellowship, that God still heals today. Just weeks before I was hired by that hospital in November, 1984, I went to England with a ministry team from the Denver Vineyard church whose intern pastor position had fallen away for me. When the senior pastor informed me that the position wouldn’t be there for me after all, he offered for me to accompany his church’s ministry team of about 25 people to a Healing conference that the Vineyard denomination would be presenting in London’s Westminster Hall. He stated that I would be expected to pray for people to receive physical healing, after conference sessions. I accepted the offer despite having no previous experience praying for people’s healing. I figured it would be a good learning experience for me. During that week-long London event for Anglican pastors and their spouses, taught by John Wimber, the head of the Vineyard denomination, I was amazed by these experiences:
- About 20 people approached me for prayer at the end of general sessions, as I waited at my assigned place with other ministry team members. I prayed for the needs of each one, knowing I was over my head and had nothing to offer of my own. I was amazed that person after person told me, after we prayed together, that they experienced some form of healing, to some degree. I had heard that such power had manifested at John Wimber’s healing events around the world, but I was nevertheless surprised that people experienced it through my prayers. It clearly wasn’t about me. That week laid an experiential foundation for me to pray for people who need healing. What happened a few months later in my Loveland hospital, when I prayed for the heart-attack patient, was consistent with what I had experienced in England.
- Early in the London conference, I heard a man start laughing from a distant seat in the balcony. His laughter was like a match that started a spreading fire. Soon the entire auditorium of 2,500 people had erupted in uproarious laughter. John Wimber paused from his talk, stood and watched with a smirk on his face, until the laughter subsided 15 minutes later. Over the next ten+ years this experience was repeated in other conferences around the world, and came to be called “The Laughing Revival.” It felt to me like the invigorating joy of the Lord, similar to Nehemiah 8:10, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.”
- Near the end of that pastor conference in England, John Wimber talked about the need many feel for a fresh touch of God’s grace. When he finished speaking, he invited people wanting this to come forward to receive prayer. I went forward to receive prayer, feeling sheepish because I was supposed to be there to give prayer, not receive it. A woman from Wimber’s church in California came up to me, put her hand on my chest, and prayed for me. As soon as she ended her prayer and walked away, I sensed a warmth in my heart. It felt like love. I recalled John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, whose ministry was empowered and launched by having a similar experience at Aldersgate Church: He wrote that his heart was “strangely warmed.” Mine felt warm, too. I knew it was God. It was such a good feeling that when everyone left the auditorium a few minutes later for the dinner break, I went to a distant balcony seat and remained there, alone in the auditorium, for the next two hours, until the evening’s general session. I didn’t want to lose the wonderful feeling of God’s love radiating within me. Once again, I had experienced that God is real! That good feeling stayed with me the rest of the evening.