Shepherding movement was Connected to the Catholic Church

from the Beginning.

 

VOLUME 1, NUMBER 1
Prepare for the Harvest Part I, by Rick Joyner and Bob Weiner

This is the first part of a series devoted to help the church prepare for the multitudes of new believers soon to be gathered.

Bible Studies for a Firm Foundation, by Bob & Rose Weiner

The atonement: God’s provision for man’s sin

Contributors to the Journal over the years have included Francis Frangipane, Dudley Hall, Reuven Doron, Aaron Katz, Paul Cain, Dennis Peacocke, Bob Mumford, Art Katz, Derek Prince, Wellington Boone, James Ryle and others.

Speaker at the ecumenical Celebrate Jesus 2000 held in St. Louis, Missouri, June 22-25, 2000. Other ecumenical speakers included: Rev. Jack Hayford, Babsie Bleasdell/Rev. Steve Hill, Rev. Pat Robertson, Fr. Tom Forrest, Fr. Bob DeGrandis, Rev. Ted Haggard, Fr. Michael Scanlan, Rev. John Kilpatrick, Cindy Jacobs, Francis MacNutt, Rev. John & Carol Arnott, Rev. Vinson Synan and many more.

Jay Rogers is current editor/writer of The Forerunner. Robert Weiner is known as "... the Father of Maranatha Christian Churches and Campus Ministries. Although they decentralized in 1989, from those roots and his vision, God has raised up many faithful world changing Churches and ministries and sent hundreds of laborers into the harvest.... Bob's Ministry is marked by the release of Apostolic Faith, Signs and wonders. His vision is to win One Billion souls before Jesus returns!"

Although Maranatha reportedly disbanded, many of its churches and groups did not. "According to an article in the March issue of Charisma and Christian Life magazine, Maranatha leaders decided at a July 1989 board meeting that too much of a 'spirit of control' had entered the ministry. The article also noted that four Maranatha elders suggested Weiner take a sabbatical during which time he would evaluate his 'personal character.'

During the sabbatical, Weiner concluded that, 'I have been struggling with anger, unkindness, contentiousness and a tendency to control,' the article quoted him as saying.

In 1984, however, Weiner steadfastly denied that the ministry engaged in abuses of authority. According to the August 10, 1984 Christianity Today, Weiner was responding to the just-released conclusions of an ad hoc committee of cult watchers that charged Maranatha Christian Ministries with having 'an authoritarian orientation with potential negative consequences for members.' Weiner accused the committee of having an anticharismatic bias

The Christianity Today article, and another article a year later in the Wall Street Journal, publicized allegations that Maranatha members were not allowed to date and were required to submit their lives to shepherds who made decisions for them. Marriages of staff members were subject to Maranatha’s entire board of elders. [Bob Weiner’s Plans Unclear a Year after Maranatha Disbands, CRI]

Information obtained from an individual, who was removed from Maranatha in March 2000, stated, "Apostle" Don Pfotenhauer is the "apostle and spiritual covering" of Maranatha Christian Church, the campus church on the University of Minnesota whose pastor is Bruce Harpel. He started Maranatha at the U of M in 1982. He refused to repent when the whole Maranatha church structure was investigated between 1982-1984 and supposedly "disbanded" back in 1989.

Pfotenhauer's first church was called Way of the Cross." "In 1980, Don was released from full-time pastoral duties to devote himself to the growing number of churches and pastors that were seeking out his counsel. That developed into the United Network of Christian Churches and Ministries to which he currently provides apostolic oversight, including churches in Eastern Europe." [Don] While it has been suggested that the shepherding movement ceased when Marantha "disbanded" current facts reveal otherwise.

Don Pfotenhauer became a member of the Fort Lauderdale Five's secretive General Council in 1977. Qualifications were, " There are two qualifications for entering into the Council: either being a head elder of a community or having an "apostolic ministry" (in the broad sense of "apostolic")..."[General Council Minutes, December 17-19, 1975, Ann Arbor, Mich.]

The ecumenical "Five" were none other than the ecumenical shepherding/discipling instigators Bob Mumford, Derek Prince, Don Basham, Ern Baxter, and Charles Simpson mentioned in the article Shepherds in Disguise. Other ecumenical members of their General Council who were selected included Dick Key, Tom Monroe, Ray Ostendorf, Steve Clark, Ralph Martin, John Poole, Larry Christenson, Kevin Ranaghan, Jim Cavnar, Dick Coleman, Paul DeCelles, Bruce Yocum, Cardinal Suenens and others. It should be noted that the shepherding movement was connected to the Catholic Church from the beginning.

Ralph Martin, a member of the Ft. Lauderdale General Council since 1974 or prior, is president of Renewal Ministries, a Catholic charismatic mission organization dedicated to evangelization and renewal. It was founded in 1980 by Ralph Martin, considered by many to be the most effective Catholic evangelist since Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. During the mid-1960s, Ralph served as a national leader of Cursillo, a Catholic renewal movement, and helped it grow to national prominence. In the 1970s, he emerged as one of the main leaders of worldwide Catholic renewal. He worked closely with Cardinal Leon Joseph Suenens, of Belgium, to establish an international office for renewal in the Church. He is presently a leader of The Word of God, an ecumenical Christian community in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

From the 'General Council's Minutes", we see that Steve Clark and Ralph Winter were responsible for being liaisons from the General Council to their community coordinators for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Service Committee. Lutheran Charismatic Renewal Service Committee, which Morris Vaagenes headed in 1977, had Larry Christenson on the Coordinating Committee. Don Pfotenhauer and Rod Lensch were supposed to form leadership and authority which would lead to prophetic leadership for LCRS. [See: General Council Minutes as forwarded]

Don Pfotenhauer was speaker at an ecumenical event called Wisdom 2001, April 26-29. The Conference ad reads, " Since about 1960, God has poured out His Spirit in a powerful and creative expression we call the Charismatic Movement. God used many men and women to give birth to this move of His Spirit.

After 30 years, WISDOM 2001 gathered many of them together to draw forth from their experience the principal gems of wisdom they have learned to live by. It is my conviction that this wisdom is so valuable that it needed to be collected in some form so that it can be passed on to 21st Century Christians....*

Some of those invited but unable to attend included Ralph Martin, Dorothy & Kevin Ranaghan, Rev. Tommy Tyson, Rev. Kenneth Hagin, Rev. Kenneth Copeland, Nicky Cruz, Rev. Howard Ervin, Rev. Vinson Synan, Rev. Harald Bredeson, Sr. Nancy Kellar, Sr. Linda Koontz, Rev. Jack Hayford, Fr. Tom Forrest, Rev. Terry Fullam, Rev. Chuck Smith, Rev. Bob Mumford, Rev. Derek Prince, Rev. Michael Harper and others." http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.w-z.htm