Mega Shift - James Rutz

A MUST READ. Megashift chronicles the massive wave of God's power that is sweeping the world. Complete with miracles, trends, tips and stats. It is well documented - even if it does blow some of my categories.

Particularly interesting is the empowerment factor. Most of the massive growth has happened in simple structures run by average believers with Big God faith.

Here are 11 engines of change that Rutz sees shaping this movement of God.

1. Intercessory Prayer (prayer warfare / strategic level intercession / prayer evangelism) - A serious dependence on God arriving to produce amazing results.
2. Empowerment - "In the new, more open churches, you don't have to wait for someone to give you permission for every little thing. You just do it." Empowerment has to do with unleashing the potential in every member of the body - mainly by decreasing the complexity by doing church and life together with very few external controls.
3. Reconciliation - Breaking down the power of the enemy by healing the wounds between peoples.
4. Identificational Repentance (IR) - Apologizing and seeking forgiveness for the actions of those who have gone before us. (ie. slavery) (there are a lot of good biblical examples of this - I like Ezra 9:1 - 15)
5. Spiritual Mapping - "Hard, plodding, basic research aimed at discovering the spiritual history of a town, region or nation (or campus even). It tries to answer the central questions: How did this place come to have all its problems? Exactly how is the enemy messing us up today? What can we do about it?"
6. Saturation Church Planting Movements - Strategically planting small, simple, rapidly reproducing bodies in order to saturate a specific target. Many of these groups are starting new groups every other weekend.
7. On Site Prayer - praying over the location you are targeting.
8. Fasting - nuff said.
9. Leadership Teamwork - APEPT / 4-11 / Fivefold ministry teams (Eph 4:11) - ministry based upon gifting and example rather than organization position. More of an emphasis on networks and partnering over denominations and organizational structures.
10. Media Evangelism - radio, tv, web
11. God working even if we don't - dreams, vision and other wild stuff.

Interesting tidbit - more Muslims have come to Christ in the last 10 years than the previous 1,000.

That is enough for me to realize that God is up to something!