It should be evident by now that I was profoundly moved by the visit of Brother Yun to Chicago. I was even more profoundly moved by his ministry to me and by the friendship that we established by spending time together. When he assured me on September 21st that he was praying for me, and would pray for me, I believe him.

I have addressed the various attacks upon Brother Yun's ministry and character. I have also provided a link to Paul Hattaway's excellent article. There is one last attack on him that I want to address, since I personally observed this for myself.

It has been rumored widely that Brother Yun is a millionaire and lives an opulent lifestyle in the West. Along with this it is rumored that he raises large sums of money and uses it for himself. What do I make of this charge?

Absolutely nothing. While it is true that I have not been […]

I am grateful for all of the comments posted regarding my recent posts about Brother Yun. I hope that these posts have encouraged you to be more like Christ, not simply to support Brother Yun. His expressed intention is not that you support him but the underground church in China and the "Back to Jerusalem" movement.

Not only have Americans attacked Brother Yun, but attacks have come from other lands and church leaders as well. A number of Korean leaders have denounced him as a heretic and a con man. And this sort of attack comes without Brother Yun having ever visited Korea. Paul Hattaway writes that this kind of response comes, as always, from people who have never met Brother Yun or spoken to him. The good news is that many other churches and leaders from various nations outside the West have also invited Brother Yun to speak. For every closed door he meets, God is opening a new one and his ministry keeps growing. To God be the glory!

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Tonight ACT 3 hosts another in its series of ecumenical dialogues that are aimed at giving Christians the opportunity to meet believers from traditions and churches other than their own. We have done several of these events with Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant discussions over the past twelve months. A major ecumenical dialogue was held in September of 2007 at North Central College, Naperville, Illinois. Then on March 30th of this year I shared the platform with my good friend Fr. Thomas Baima, the provost of Mundelein Seminary at St. Mary of the Lake. This event was focused on our agreements and differences regarding the Eucharist, as seen in my book: Understanding Four Views of the Lord's Supper (Zondervan, 2007).

Tonight I will moderate a discussion between two Protestant evangelical scholars, Dr. George Kalantzis and Dr. Grant Osborne, and two Orthodox scholars, Dr. Bradley Nassif and Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon. The site […]

Paul Hattaway, co-author and editor of Brother Yun’s two books (The Heavenly Man and Living Water) is also committed to defending the character of Brother Yun. You can read his entire “Open Letter” at Asia Harvest. I have read this response to the critics twice, once about 18 months ago and then again just after Brother Yun was here this last weekend. I waited to read Hattaway's letter for the second time in order to form my own views based upon what I actually saw and experienced myself.

Paul Hattaway says that when he worked on the first Yun book he knew two things would surely follow. First, many people would be blessed simply because Yun’s testimony is so remarkable. We all hunger to know people who demonstrate the power of kingdom life like Brother Yun. When we are touched by their lives we are better for it. Second, he knew that a sleeping Western church would attack the messengers of change that God sent to it. To not attack would be to accept the verdict of the prophet, and thus […]

When I was working on Brother Yun’s schedule for his Chicago visit, about six weeks before this last weekend, a good friend and solid missions leader, Rev. Ray Prigodich, became involved in my efforts. Ray is an elder at Village Bible Church (Sugar Grove, IL). Ray wanted to know more about Brother Yun before the church invited him to speak on September 21st, and thus did some serious, open-minded, research. (Thank God for men like Ray who ask and remain open to the truth.) In his reading Ray came across an online blog comment by a professor at Denver Seminary that was very favorable toward Brother Yun. This discerning and favorable word came from the well-known author Douglas Groothuis. As a result of this comment by Douglas Groothuis I passed this blog along to the Zondervan publicist and suggested that she contact the seminary. The publicist did this and thus Brother Yun was invited to speak at Denver Seminary on Tuesday, September 23.

The following report is from a Denver Seminary news source. I share this information so that you might see […]

In this my third blog on the visit of Brother Yun to the Chicago area, I am following the admonition of Paul in Romans 14:16: "Therefore do not let what you know to be good to be spoken of as evil."

My purpose here is to show you how this man’s good has been spoken of as evil and then how this has caused incredible harm to the body of Christ. I write this post not only because I believe in the ministry of Brother Yun (and Brother Ren, his translator seen in the photo here) but even more so because I believe in the church and believe that this needs to be addressed with deep repentance if we are to see God’s Kingdom power in our land.

Slander involves speaking untruthfully about another person. The common definition of the word also carries with it the idea that the reputation and character of the party spoken against is directly harmed […]

As noted in yesterday’s post I had the opportunity to spend several days with the Chinese minister Brother Yun, who has lived in Germany since his escape from China in 1997. Brother Yun’s story is widely known. I urge you to buy his book, The Heavenly Man, and read it for yourself. I will tell you again, it changed my life. My copy is signed by my new friend and the Scripture text that he used, in Chinese of course, was from Acts 26:19 where Paul says to King Agrippa, "I obeyed the vision from heaven." He urged me to "obey" the vision God had given to me when he signed it and handed it back to me. Over dinner on Saturday evening we spoke about the vision that God has given to me and he reiterated that no matter what the cost I must obey God, not man. I listened with intense interest and a deep sense that God was encouraging me directly through this "heavenly man."

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